Utah exhibits [of the] State of Arizona, complainant, v. State of California, Palo Verde Irrigation District, Imperial Irrigation District, Coachella Valley County Water District, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, City of Los Angeles, City of San Diego, and County of San Diego, defendants, United States of America and State of Nevada, interveners, State of New Mexico and State of Utah, parties

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AGRICULTURE UNDER IRRIGATION IN BASIN OF VIRGIN RIVER. 253 low, the Bonelli Ditch takes the entire flow of the river. This flow rises a short distance above the head of the ditch. WATER TITLES IN THE LOWER DIVISION. The only portion of the lower division of Virgin River Basin in which any attention whatever has been given to water titles is on Muddy Creek. At the three settlements of Littlefield, Mesquite, and Bunkerville the supply of water is considerably in excess of present needs, and water is had for the taking. Only one notice of appropriation from Virgin River in the division has been filed. The filing was made in the office of the clerk of Mohave County, at Kingman, Ariz. The claimants were Brigham Jarvis, W. J. B. Carter, and Arthur F. Miles, and the amount claimed 2,000 "inches" from Virgin River in the narrows above Littlefield "for mining, milling, and other beneficial purposes" on Paymaster mill site. The notice was filed April 5, 1902. MUDDY CRKXK. When Muddy Valley was first settled by the Mormon missionaries in the sixties no attention was paid to water titles. Some ditches were built in the settlements of St. Thomas, Overton, and St. Joseph, but no shortage of water was felt. With the exodus of the Mormons in 1871 and the resettlement of the valley, the first move to establish water titles was made. This was merely in the form of an official county survey on February 1 and 2, 1872, of a ditch 6 miles long. This survey was made at the instance of Daniel Bonelli, and on February 2, 1872, Bonelli filed with the clerk of Lincoln County, Nev., atPioche, a claim for "an undivided one-fourth of a certain water ditch and 400 inches of the water running and which may run through said ditch, for agricultural purposes," and also "an undivided one-half of a certain ditch in said Muddy Valley, known as Old Farm Ditch, and one-half of the water running and which may run therein, for agricultural purposes." This is not only the first but the only record of water rights on Muddy Creek, and the conflicting claims to the water this record refers to have furnished ground for the only contest and litigation over water rights there has been in the valley. When the ditch referred to in the recorded survey was built, Daniel Bonelli owned a one-fourth interest, as stated in his recorded claim. For several years after the ditch was built Bonelli farmed some of the land under it, but in 1879 he moved away, whereupon his land was worked by tenants. In 1894 the interest of Daniel Bonelli in the ditch and the water it carried was turned over to his son, B. F. Bonelli. During these years the owners and their grantors of the remaining three-fourths interest in the ditch had had a slight misunderstanding with Bonelli, and also with the users of water from Muddy Creek in the upper settlements of Overton and Logan. With a view to clearing away these misunderstandings a union of all irrigation interests in the valley by incorporating the Muddy Valley Irrigation Company was proposed. A few irrigators from the creek, among them Bonelli, refused to join interests in this way, but nevertheless, on August 24, 1895, the company was incorporated. The difficulties with Bonelli were not overcome by the formation of this company, but continued to give trouble and culminated in a suit in which Bonelli was the plaintiff and the other irrigators in the valley were the defendants.