OCR Text |
Show 8 WAR FOR THE COLORADO RIVER Born in the snows of the vast Rocky Mountains, churned to muddy froth in the awesome distances to the south, echoing in the Grand Canyon, and finally emerging in a red flood into the Sea of Gortez - the Gulf of California - the river's water became the prize in the greatest waterhole conflict of all time. It was desired passionately by California for the lush fields of Imperial and Coachella Valleys and to nurture the populations of metropolitan areas in Los Angeles and other counties. But Arizona, growing and harboring great dreams of future developments, wanted it too. Phrases, which not everybody understood but every- body heard, were thrown about like shrapnel: Colo- rado River Compact, Central Arizona Project, Cali- fornia Limitation Act. Virgin Flow of the Gila River, First-in-Time-First-in-Right, Mexican Treaty, Riparian Rights, Villain, Scoundrel, Skullduggery. In the midst of this turmoil one man was observing, making notes, appraising, studying, evaluating. He was the Bos well of strife, the biographer of an epic in bitterness. From the fighting he emerged in possession of more facts about the California-Arizona water war than any man alive. Only John Upton Terrell could write the dramatic story of this gargantuan combat as it should be written. I, as a participant for fifteen years in this great water war, know whereof I speak. During the twenty years he worked as a newspaper- man in various parts of the United States and as a Washington correspondent, Terrell wrote many stories about water, power, and reclamation developments in the West. In 1948 he became Washington representa- |