Without water, we could not survive here in this Valley of The Sun. The advent of air conditioning after World War II enabled a rapid expansion of the vast metropolitan area…Maricopa County is the size of the state of Connecticut.

Back to water. The canal system in this Salt River Valley, a river that is now a trickle is ancient and orginially built by the Hohokam people who vanished after living in the Valley for hundreds of year. Phoenix is built of the ashes of the past inhabitants.

Canal history
The nine canals that make up the Valley’s canal system were developed over the past 100 years. Each canal has a unique history and service area. This canal system is managed by the Salt River Project.

The Crosscut Canal runs through Papago Park in North Tempe.

SRP Canal History
“The Crosscut Canals: Old and new
The ‘old’ Crosscut Canal was built by pioneers in 1888 to bring irrigation water from the Arizona Canal to the Grand Canal. It was sold to the federal government in 1906 for $15,730. Portions of the canal have been turned over to the city of Phoenix to carry away storm drainage from northeast Phoenix. The old Crosscut Canal now takes storm water to the Salt River bed under the Grand Canal. It also can carry water from the Arizona Canal to the Grand Canal. The Salt River Valley Water Users’ Association under a 1910 contract with the United States Reclamation Service (the predecessor of the Bureau of Reclamation) constructed the “new” Crosscut Canal in 1912-1913. Grant Brothers Construction Company completed most of the work on the canal. The canal connects to two parallel penstocks, which Martin & Gillis constructed in 1913, that drop 116-feet into the Crosscut Hydroelectric plant. This plant was constructed in 1913-1914 and has a generating capacity of 3,000 kilowatts (kW).”

Each canal bringing this essential and scarce resource has it’s own history. From the SRP webpage

Hohokam Legacy: Desert Canals Source: Waterhistory.org
“…From A.D. 600 to 1450, the prehistoric Hohokam constructed one of the largest and most sophisticated irrigation networks ever created using preindustrial technology. By A.D. 1200, hundreds of miles of these waterways created green paths winding out from the Salt and Gila Rivers, dotted with large platform mounds…”

For a history of water in the Salt River a good link is here:The First Five: A Brief History of the Salt River Project Shelly C. Dudley
“The early travelers crossing southern Arizona on their way to California followed the Gila River, not usually proceeding up to the Salt River. But when the miners discovered bodies of ore along the Hassayampa River and then the military came to keep the hostile Indians away, Jack Swilling found the remains of prehistoric canals in what became the Salt River Valley. By the 1 870s other farmers and settlers found the land along the Salt River to be fertile and stayed to cultivate the soil, growing extensive fields of grain or alfalfa, or establishing commercial businesses, but within thirty years the flow of the river was over appropriated and growth could not be maintained.

At least a half dozen companies constructed canals, most cooperative organizations of local farmers who worked together to build the irrigation channels to deliver water to their own land. In 1883, the Arizona Canal Company sold bonds to investors around the country in order to construct the Arizona Canal on the northern tier of the Salt River Valley. This canal company expected to make a profit from the sale of land and water rights to new settlers and with its chief construction contractor, W. J. Murphy, and original incorporator Clark Churchill, formed the Arizona Improvement Company. Sitting on the first Board of Directors were local businessmen, Murphy, Churchill, and William Christy, along with California and Nevada entrepreneurs, Frederick W. Sharon and Francis G. Newlands.[1]

W. J. Murphy and his family purchased several tracts of land under the Arizona Canal and started an experimental citrus orchard with over 1,800 young orange and other fruit trees from southern California. The trees proved so successful other varieties were planted including olive and lemon. Because the Arizona fruit ripened prior to the orchards in Southern California, Arizona landowners could sell their produce to the eastern markets first.

By the mid-1890s over 150,000 citrus trees were growing on 1,500 acres and farmers learned they could grow the trees with less acreage and work than the traditional harvests of grain.[2]“…

From Jeff Scott

Brief History
As early as 300 BC, the Hohokams were the first to farm in Phoenix, building an elaborate canal system that brought water from the Salt River. Whites didn’t start settling the area until after the Civil War and the formation of Camp McDowell in 1865.

The city was founded by Jack Swilling, a Confederate Soldier, and the town was named by Phillip Darrel Duppa who named it because the city’s irrigation system was developed from the Hohokam ruins. He also named Tempe after the Vale of Tempe in Greece. A town was surveyed in 1870 and in 1889, the territorial capital made its final move from Prescott to its current city Phoenix.
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“A mass meeting of the citizens of Salt River Valley was held on October 20, 1870, for purpose of selecting a suitable piece of unimproved public land for a town site. Darrell Duppa, John Moore, and Martin P. Griffin were appointed as a committee to make the selection. They recommended the North 1/2 of sec. 8 T. 1 N., R. 3 E. and that the town be called Phoenix.” Elliot’s History of Arizona.

“The earliest settlement was probably early in 1868 about 4 miles east of the present town where the flour mill was later erected. First called Swilling, then Helling Mill, after the mill owner, then called East Phoenix. When the question of a name came up Jack Swilling wanted to call it “Stonewall” after Stonewall Jackson, because he had been a Confederate Soldier. ‘Salina’ was also suggested. These were turned down.

Then Duppa, pointing to the evidence of a former civilization and occupation suggested the name Phoenix. He declared ‘A new city would spring Phoenix like upon the ruins of a former civilization.’ The name was accepted.” McClintock

“On some early military maps name was spelled “Phenix”.

Many army officers and others believed it was after the noted army officer and writer John Derby, who wrote under the pen name of John Phoenix.

Derby was for some time commanding officer at Fort Yuma. Theodore Roosevelt once told Col. McClintock that he, Roosevelt, had always supposed the city was named after Derby. According to Farish, “The name Phoenix was first used officially when the Board of Supervisors of Yavapai County formed an election precinct by the name, May 4, 1868.”

P.O. Established as Phoenix, June 15, 1890, Jack Swilling, PM. He served until July 8, 1870. John W. Olvany was the second. Captain Hancock was the third, taking charge February 13, 1871, retiring December 12, 1872.”

Barnes, Will C. Arizona Place Names University of Arizona Press. 1997
P. 327″

 

 

 

 

 

From The History of Phoenix, City of Phoenix website

“By 1930, the size of Phoenix nearly doubled again with a 48,118 census count.

There were 120 miles of sidewalks and 161 miles of streets – 77 with pavement. The public library had 51,000 books, and the police force had 70 men. The budget for the city came to $2,033,886. Another pipeline was built – this time constructed with 48 inches of concrete, which still carries Verde River water to us.

 

 

The year 1940 marked another turning point in Phoenix life.

The city had gone as far as a farming center and then as a distribution center. When the war hit the United States, Phoenix rapidly turned into an embryonic industrial city. Luke Field, Williams Field and Falcon Field, coupled with the giant ground training center at Hyder, west of Phoenix, brought thousands of men into Phoenix. Their needs, both military and personal, were met in part by small industries in Phoenix.

When the war ended, many of these men returned to Phoenix, and families came with them. Suddenly thousands of people were wondering what to do for a living.

Large industry, learning of this labor pool, started to move branches here. Smaller plants were started by private capital and initiative. Water again began to run out as it had done several times before, but citizens were more fortunate than the Ho Ho Kam who built the first canals and saw them go dry. Phoenix had the greatness of American technology to fall back on. The era commencing with 1940 marked the end of agriculture’s role as our chief provider. It was the beginning of a greater prosperity than Phoenix had ever known.

In 1950, 105,000 people lived within the city limits of Phoenix and thousands more lived immediately adjacent to and depended upon Phoenix for their livelihoods.

The city had 148 miles of paved streets and 163 miles of unpaved streets, a total of 311miles of streets within the city limits….

 

A Major American City

A toll gate at Central and McDowell avenues in the 1880s was owned by the Central Avenue Improvement Association, a subsidiary of the Arizona Water Co. The toll for wagons and buggies was 25 cents. Bicycles were free, and the town was full of bicycles.

Perhaps the development of Phoenix since 1950 has been the most spectacular of all. Consider that at that time, Phoenix had an area of 17.1 square miles and a population of 106,000 that placed it 99th among American cities.

Central Avenue in 1948.

Phoenix faces an era of unlimited development. As long as the people have vision, the past will be but a prologue of what is to come.”

The Stigmatization of the Unemployed Sunday, March 20, 2011
Yves Smith, Naked Capitalism

“One thing I have never understood in America is the way that people who lose their jobs become pariahs in the job market. We’ve now had a spate of commentary on the fact that official unemployment figures are looking a tad less dreadful by dint of the fact that increasing numbers of the long term unemployed have dropped out of the job market entirely. Even the conservative Washington Post woke up last week, Rip Van Winkle like, to take note of the growing number of long-term unemployed. Bizarrely, or perhaps as a fit illustration of the spirit of the day, the article was titled: “Hidden workforce challenges domestic economic recovery.” In other words, they are Bad People because if the economy ever picks up, they might come out of the woodwork and start looking for jobs!

Many pundits, such as Paul Krugman in his latest New York Times op-ed, have decried the lack of anything remotely resembling adequate responses to the unemployment problem, particularly that of the long-term unemployed. Ronald Reagan, hero of the right, was concerned when unemployment rose over 8% and took a series of corrective measures, including the Plaza Accord, which was a G-5 currency intervention to drive up the value of the yen. So why do we have a nominally Democratic president sitting on his hands in the face of much worse unemployment?

I’d argue that the roots lie in a fundamental change in policy that took place around 1980. The lesson that economists drew from the stagflation of the 1970s was that labor had too much bargaining power. The excessive fiscal stimulus of the later 1960s and the oil price shocks of the 1970s had been amplified by the fact that workers had enough clout to demand and get wage increases when they faces sustained price increases. That of course led to more price increases since higher wages led to higher production costs which led business owners to increase prices of their goods and servicer, thus accelerating the inflation already under way.

The solution, per neoclassical economists, was to use unemployment to keep wage demands in check. Thus having a lower level of employment even in good times and taking other measures, like weakening unions, was key to keeping those pesky workers from ever serving to create a reinforcing inflationary dynamic….