Colorado River and its utilization

Water Supply Paper 395
By:  and 

Links

  • Document: Report (pdf)
  • Plates:
    • Plate XI (pdf) Reconaissance map of the Colorado River betweel Bulls Head Rock and Cibola Valley
    • Plate XII (pdf) Map of lower Colorado River showing irrigable lands below Cibola Valley
    • Plate XIII (pdf) Map of Colorado River drainage basin
    • Plate XXIV (pdf) Chart showing daily discharge, in second-feet, of Colorado River at Yuma, Ariz., 1902-1915, and storage required to regulate flow to 50,000 second-feet or less
    • Plate XV (pdf) Map showing constructed and proposed diversions from Colorado River basin to Mississippi River basin
    • Plate XVI (pdf) Diagram showing mean monthly discharge, in second-feet, of Colorado River at Hardyville, Ariz., and the demand for the irrigation of 2,734,000 acres below Virgin River; headgate duty, 5 acre-feet
    • Plate XVI (pdf) Diagram showing mean monthly discharge, in second-feet, of Colorado River at Hardyville, Ariz., and the demand for the irrigation of 2,734,000 acres below Virgin River; headgate duty, 5 acre-feet
    • Plate XX (pdf) Map of Colorado River and its tributaries showing volume of discharge
  • Download citation as: RIS | Dublin Core

Abstract

The region traversed by the Colorado and its tributaries is for many reasons of intense interest to the people of the United States. Here was the home of that forgotten people of which there is almost no record except the hieroglyphics on the rocks, the ruins of their irrigation systems, and the cliff dwellings by which they are most widely known; here were Spanish missions whose history extends back nearly to the days of Balboa and Cortez; here is the Grand Canyon, whose sublimity was first fully disclosed by Maj. Powell and his associates, who navigated it from end to end in 1869 and 1872; here are the greatest known natural bridges, so remote and inaccessible that they have only recently been discovered; here is the mighty river and its tributaries, as yet largely undeveloped, affording possibilities of extensive use for water power in its many canyons and for irrigation in its desert valleys, which need only the life-giving water to make them productive and valuable. We are interested in its mysteries, its traditions, its history, and its possible future; in the fascination of its deserts, whose immensity awes us; in the grandeur of its mountains, from the highest peaks of the Rockies on the east to the beauties of the Uinta and Wasatch mountains on the west; in the wonders of its canyons, perhaps the most famous in the world; in the range of its climate, from its short and cold summer season in Wyoming, where frosts may occur in every month of the year, to the subtropical temperatures of the valleys of Arizona, where the growing season never ends.

Publication type Report
Publication Subtype USGS Numbered Series
Title Colorado River and its utilization
Series title Water Supply Paper
Series number 395
DOI 10.3133/wsp395
Year Published 1916
Language English
Publisher U.S. Government Printing Office
Publisher location Washington, D.C.
Contributing office(s) California Water Science Center, Utah Water Science Center
Description Report: 231 p.; 8 Plates: 34.00 x 34.00 inches or smaller
Country United States
Other Geospatial Colorado River
Google Analytic Metrics Metrics page
Additional publication details