As soon as the cut was decided upon,
elaborate plans for a controlling gate were immediately started and when
completed early in November were immediately forwarded to the City of
Mexico for approval of the engineers of the Mexican government, without
whose approval we had no authority or right to construct the gate.
Notwithstanding the insistence of our attorney in the City of Mexico and
various telegraphic communications insisting upon this approval being
hurried, we were unable to obtain it until twelve months afterward,
namely, the month of December, 1905.
In the meantime serious trouble had
begun. We have since been accused of gross negligence and criminal
carelessness in making this cut, but I doubt as to whether anyone
should be accused of negligence or careless-ness in failing to
foresee that which had never happened before. We had before us, at
the time, the history of the river as shown by the daily rod
readings kept at Yuma for a period of twenty-seven years. In the
twenty-seven years there had been but three winter floods. In no
year of the twenty-seven had there been two winter floods. It was
not probable, then, in the winter of 1905, that there would be any
winter flood to enlarge the cut made by us and without doubt, as it
seemed to us, we would be able to close the cut before the approach
of the summer flood by the same means that we had used in closing
the cut for three successive years around the Chaffey gate at the
head of the canal.
During this year of 1905, however, we
had more than one winter flood. The first heavy flood came, I
believe, about the first of February, but did not enlarge the lower
intake; on the contrary it caused such a silt deposit in the lower
intake that I found it necessary, after the flood had passed, to put
the dredge through in order to deepen the channel sufficiently to
allow enough water to come into the Valley for the use of the
people.
This was followed shortly by another
heavy flood that did not erode the banks of the intake but, on the
contrary, the same as first, caused a deposit of silt and a
necessary dredging. We were not alarmed by these floods, as it was
still believed that there would be no difficulty whatever in closing
the intake before the approach of the summer flood, which was the
only one we feared. However, the first two floods were followed by a
third, coming some time in March, and this was sufficient notice to
us that we were up against a very unusual season, something unknown
in the history of the river as far back as we were able to reach;
and, as it was now approaching the season of the year when we might
reasonably expect the river surface to remain at an elevation that
would allow sufficient water for the uses of the Valley to be gotten
through the upper intake, we decided to close the lower.
Work was immediately begun upon a dam
similar to the ones heretofore successfully used in closing the cut
around the Chaffey gate. The dam was very nearly completed, when a
fourth flood coming down the river swept it out. Work was
immediately begun on another dam which was swept away by a fifth
flood coming down during this winter season.
About this time I left for the east,
and, at the earnest solicitation of Imperial Water Company No. 1,
which agreed to advance $5000 for the effort, a third attempt to
close the break was made under the directions of Mr. C. N. Perry and
the superintendent of Imperial Water Company No. 1, Mr. Thomas
Beach. On my return from the east, on the 17th of June, I found them
heroically attempting to stop the break with the water so high in
the Colorado that all of the banks and surrounding lands were
flooded, and I immediately stopped the work as we realized fully
that nothing could be done until after the summer flood had passed.
At this time the lower intake had been
enlarged from a width of about sixty feet, as originally cut with
the dredger, to a width of possibly 150 feet, and it did not then
seem probable that the Colorado River would turn its entire flow
through the cut, but as the waters of the river began to fall the
banks of the intake began to cave and run into the canal; the banks
of the canal below the intake fell in and, as known by most
residents of the Valley, the entire river began running through the
canal and into the Salton Sea in the month of August of this year of
1905.
After stopping the work of Messrs.
Perry and Beach in June of that year, it was decided that nothing
further should be done until the summer flood had passed. When that
flood had receded and we found the entire river was coming through
into the Salton Sea, the question as to how to turn the river
became, perhaps, as serious a one from an engineering point of view,
as had ever before confronted any engineer upon the American
continent.
Immediately opposite the heading of
the lower intake an island lay in the Colorado River about a half
mile long and a quarter of a mile wide, being merely a sand bar upon
which there had accumulated a growth of cottonwood and arrow weed,
and in the month of July, while still a very large portion of the
water was flowing through the east channel along the Arizona shore,
I conceived the idea that possibly we might, by driving a line of
piling from the upper end of this island to the Lower California
shore and weaving in between the piling barbed wire and brush,
create a sand bar that would gradually force all of the water into
the east channel, after which we could throw in a permanent dam
across the lower intake. Under the supervision of George Sexsmith,
our dredger foreman, and E. H. Gaines, the present county surveyor
of Imperial County, both of whom had been with us for years and made
good, this jetty was started from the upper end of the island and
directed toward the California shore at a point about 3000 feet
above the island. I hardly expected this plan to be a success, but
there was a possibility of its succeeding, and it was the only means
that could be adopted that might turn the water from the Salton Sea
quickly enough to prevent the necessity of moving the Southern
Pacific tracks; and also, if successful, it was the most economical
means of turning the river. We succeeded in building a bar
throughout the length of about 2800 feet, but there was left an
opening, approximately 125 feet long, through which the rush of
water was too great to control. This work was abandoned about the
first of August.
The one plan that I had advised, that
I felt surely would succeed, was to construct a gate of sufficient
size to carry the entire low water flow of the river, believing that
when the was turned through this gate we could, by closing the
gates, raise the water to an elevation that would throw it down its
original channel. This plan was fully discussed with Mr. Randolph
and with our consulting engineer, Mr. James D. Schuyler, as well as
with engineers of the Southern Pacific, who fully agreed as to the
feasibility of that plan, and who expressed their belief that no
other plan gave as great assurance of success. Mr. H. T. Cory, who
was at that time Mr. Randolph's assistant and confidential man at
Tucson, was sent from Tucson to examine into my plans and to report
to Mr. Randolph upon their feasibility. At Mr. Cory's suggestion, an
engineer from San Francisco was brought down to go over the works.
Both Mr. Cory and his friend agreed upon the feasibility of the gate
plan. Every one interested agreeing, I then, on rush orders, got
together all material necessary for the construction of this gate,
the floor of which was to be of concrete on a pile foundation with a
wooden superstructure, and it was my expectation to have the entire
structure completed by the middle of November, 1905. If I remember
correctly, the first material for this structure left Los Angeles on
the 7th day of August, 1905.
It had been my intention originally to
construct the gate in a channel to be built by the dredge west of
the intake, but the soil proving of a quicksand formation and
saturated with water, I found it difficult to make this excavation,
and after working a few days I abandoned that idea and decided to
construct a by-pass immediately east of the intake channel through
which I would force the water of the river and would then build a
gate in the intake itself. The intake at this point was about 300
feet in width, no more than we would require for rapid and
successful construction of the work.
The dredger was immediately put to
work upon the by-pass and this material was so easily moved that the
dredger found no difficulty whatever in making the short cut of
about 700 feet that was required and as soon as the cut was made a
large portion of the water in the intake began naturally to pass
through; and work was begun upon the first dam required to force all
of the water through the by-pass, it being the intention that when
this dam was completed and all of the water was going through the
by-pass to throw in another dam about 250 feet below the first in
order to inclose that portion of the intake to be used as a site for
the gate; the second dam being built in still water, would have
required only two or three days' work with the dredger, as it would
have been simply an earthen bank thrown up by that machine.
It was at this time that I decided
that it would be necessary for me to either put some one at the
river to take absolute charge of the construction of the gate and
the closing of the river, or else it would be necessary to put some
one in the Los Angeles office to handle the business affairs of the
company, as I found that I was spending fully one-third of my time
on the train between Los Angeles and Yuma and that the strain was
becoming too great and that either work required my presence all the
time. I met Mr. Randolph about the middle of September and discussed
the question with him and he fully agreed with me that I could not
fill both positions, and also agreed with me that it would be easier
to find someone capable of completing the gate in accordance with
the plans outlined, than it would be to find some one to take charge
of the business end of the affairs of the company, as no one but Mr.
Heber and myself knew fully in regard to all contracts that had been
entered into. Mr. Randolph asked me who I had in mind for the river
work and upon my replying that I had not decided, he suggested that
Mr. F. S. Edinger would be the right man if we could get him. I did
not know Mr. Edinger intimately, but had known him for several years
as the superintendent of bridges for the Southern Pacific Railroad.
He had built the bridge at Yuma and I believed him to be a man of
integrity and of great ability, and I concurred with Mr. Randolph in
the wisdom of placing Mr. Edinger in charge of the work at the
river, providing his services could be obtained. He had left the
employ of the Southern Pacific about three months previously and was
then interested with the contracting firm of Shattuck & Desmond of
Los Angeles and San Francisco, with headquarters at San Francisco.
I had to leave the following day for
San Francisco in order to pass upon the plans for the concrete head
gate which were being gotten out by our consulting engineer, Mr.
James D. Schuyler. In San Francisco I attempted to find Mr. Edinger,
but learned that he was in Arizona. On my return to Los Angeles, I
found a letter from Mr. Randolph stating that he had met Mr. Edinger
in Tucson and had arranged with him to take entire charge of the
work at the river for construction of the gate in accordance with my
plans; he requested me to go to Yuma with Mr. Edinger and turn the
entire work over to him. Mr. Edinger had left for San Francisco, but
returned in three or four days, when I accompanied him to the river,
discussed with him the entire gate plans, went with him over the
ground and turned at the time the entire work over to him. He
expressed himself as entirely satisfied with the plans of this gate
and as believing that the gate could be put in place much easier
than I had anticipated, but agreed with me that if I was erring it
was on the side of safety, and that the work would go ahead as
outlined by me. He said that it would be necessary for him to return
to San Francisco at once in order to obtain some additional pumping
machinery, which we decided we would require, and also to get
several of his old men whom he thought would be of very material
assistance to him in carrying through the new work rapidly.
He went to San Francisco and was to
return in a week. He did not return for two weeks, and when he did
return passed through Los Angeles without notifying me. He went to
the river, and at this time we were having what we ordinarily expect
about the first of October, a slight rise in the river of two to
three feet. This rise I had been expecting and hoping for, as I
believed it would enlarge the by-pass and would, without the aid of
the dam, throw a larger amount of the river water through the
by-pass.
Mr. Edinger, according to statements
made to me, remained on the work at this time but a few minutes,
when he returned to Yuma and took the first train for Tucson to see
Mr. Randolph, to whom he said that neither he nor any other man
could build that gate and put it in place and that he would not
undertake it. He had plans for the construction of a dam across the
west channel from the head of the island direct to the Lower
California shore, a distance of about 600 feet, by means of which he
said he would be able to turn the water down the east channel. He
claimed that he could do this work in much quicker time than the
gate could be put in, even if the gate could be built at all, which
he denied. Mr. Randolph, who had great faith in Mr. Edinger's
experience and ability, agreed to this change of plan without
consultation with me, and authorized Mr. Edinger to remove all
material from the gate site, and to proceed at once with the
construction of what was afterward known as the Edinger Dam.
This was on a Thursday that Mr. Edinger went to Tucson. On Friday
they started to move all material to the site of the Edinger Dam,
and I knew nothing at all of this change of plan until the following
Monday, when I was notified by Mr. Randolph in Los Angeles of what
he had done.
The dam met with several mishaps;
Edinger was very much longer in its construction than he had
estimated. One of the foundation mats had broken, and though it was
held in place, I did not believe, nor did other engineers believe
who examined the work, that it would be a success. On the 29th day
of November, Edinger had succeeded in raising the water thirty-five
inches by means of the dam and had some water going down the east
channel, it would have been necessary to have raised the water to a
height of between eight and ten feet, and it is exceedingly doubtful
if the structure would have stood the pressure, but that is merely a
matter of surmise.
On the 29th of November a very heavy
flood came down the river and the entire structure was washed away
and the work was abandoned.
Whether or not the first gate planned
would have been completed before the flood of November 29th, is a
matter of conjecture. No man can tell positively, but, judging from
the tremendous work evolved in the construction of the second gate,
which would not have been incurred in the construction of the first,
and judging, too, from the rapidity with which the second gate was
put in place, it is my opinion and the opinion of others who were
able to judge, that the first gate would have been in place before
the flood came down; and that gate, with its concrete floor, would
have stood the pressure that would have been placed upon it, in
which case the river would have been turned in November, 1905, and
at a cost that would not have exceeded $125,000.
On the 15th day of December, 1905, I
was authorized to go ahead again with the construction of what has
been known as the Rockwood Gate. The heavy flood of November 29th
had enlarged the intake from a width of approximately 600 feet. It
had taken out the island between the by-pass and the intake, and as
we could not hope for the completion of the new gate before April,
1906, by which time we might possibly have high water in the river,
it seemed an unsafe proposition to attempt to build the gate in the
old channel. After looking over the ground, then, I decided to build
the new gate directly in the main canal and to carry the water
around the gate by means of a new canal to be built. The first gate
was planned for a width of 120 feet and to carry a maximum of nine
thousand cubic feet per second, which was the estimated amount of
water that might be in the river in the month of November, 1905, at
which time I had expected to have the gate completed. The Yuma
records show that the amount of water flowing in the river previous
to the flood of November 29th could have been successfully carried
through a gate of the width planned. As the new gate could not be
completed until the spring of 1906, I decided that it would have to
be built larger than previously planned in order to carry the larger
amount of water that might be expected in the river at that time;
consequently, it was planned with a width of 200 feet.
The dimensions of the new gate,
including its wooden aprons, was to be over all 240 feet by 10 feet.
Instead of having a clear cut channel to work in, as we had for the
first gate, the entire space had to be enclosed in a coffer-dam, and
the excavation made from the interior of this enclosure. The work
involved was such that the time required, as well as the expense,
was fully twice as great as required for the construction of the
first gate.
Mr. Randolph, while giving his
permission to go ahead with this construction, expressed doubt of
our ability to put the floor of the gate down to the elevation that
I expected to reach. I succeeded in placing the floor one foot below
the elevation proposed in the original plan and the gate, except for
its rock aprons, which were never built, was completed on the 18th
day of April, 1906, practically within the time I had estimated,
although at a very much greater cost. But we had had high water in
the river since about the first of March, and at this time some
22,000 cubic feet per second were passing down the channel; and,
while I believe that the gate might successfully carry 15,000 feet,
it seemed foolish to place a test upon it, at this time, against a
rising river, as it was exceedingly doubtful if we would be able to
construct a dam across the 600 feet channel with the means at our
disposal before the summer flood should be upon us; consequently, we
decided to stop the work until after the summer flood of 1906 should
have passed.
I had found, at this time, that it
was impossible for me to manage the affairs of the company in
accordance with my ideas, and unless I could do so, I believed that
it was best for the stockholders of the company that I should resign
as assistant general manager, which I did the latter part of April,
1906. Mr. H. T. Cory was then made general manager and I became the
consulting engineer.
After the summer flood had passed Mr.
Cory moved his headquarters to the river and took complete charge of
the work.
At this time, due to the summer flood
of 1906, the intake had again been enlarged from 600 feet to
approximately 2600 feet, and the work of filling was of such a
magnitude that we decided it would be impossible to accomplish it in
the time at our disposal except by means of a branch road to be
built a distance of seven miles from the Southern Pacific main line
across the intake, on the site of the proposed dam. The construction
of this line, which was immediately begun, gave us the opportunity
to throw a spur track in front of the gate and assure its safety, as
it would permit rock to be dumped either on the gate or in front of
it in case serious erosion should occur; but the spur was not built
until too late. The rock aprons that I had intended to build above
and below the gate had not been put in, which omission allowed
whirlpools to start in front of the gate which dug a hole below the
sheet piling. The spur was then completed as rapidly as possible in
order to bring in rock to fill the hole, but when the first
trainload of rock started across the spur on the morning of October
11th, a part of the trestle gave way and the train was thrown from
the track, and at three o'clock in the afternoon the gate rose and
went out. I was not on the ground at the time, having resigned as
consulting engineer in October.
Previous to this, however, this gate,
which had been planned to carry 12,000 cubic feet of water per
second on an even flow, had been carrying for a period of nearly two
weeks far in excess of the amount, and, due to the drift which had
been allowed to accumulate in front of it, this water, instead of
going through smoothly, was going through with an overpour exceeding
four feet in height.
Whether the structure would have
stood the strain had this spur been completed in time and had the
rock aprons shown in my original plans been built, no man can tell,
but it is my belief and that of other experienced engineers who
examined it, that it would have stood and would have done the work
for which it was planned, and would have been there today.
After the Rockwood Gate, so-called,
went out, I understand that Mr. Randolph decided to throw a mat and
brush dam across the river channel below the intake of the concrete
gate, which was built under my direction the winter before, and to
force all the water through it. He was dissuaded, as I have been
told, from this plan by Thomas Hind, who had been previously in
charge of the work at the river under my directions, and who was, at
the time of the going out of the Rockwood Gate, foreman under H. T.
Cory in charge of the river work. Hind said he could close the river
and force the water back into the old channel by main force,
providing they could furnish him with rock fast enough. They decided
upon adopting this plan, which, at the time, was in all probability
the only one that could have been adopted that would have succeeded
in quick enough time to prevent the necessity of again moving the
Southern Pacific tracks to the high grade level which they had been
building at an elevation of 100 feet below sea level around the
Salton Sea.
Mr. Randolph succeeded in getting the Southern
Pacific to agree to this plan of procedure which necessitated,
practically, the turning over of the entire trackage facilities of
the Southern Pacific to this work.
Quarries from all over the country
were brought into requisition and passenger trains were ordered to
give way to the rock trains that would be required; and what is
probably one of the most gigantic works ever done by man in an equal
length of time was then inaugerated, and the work of filling the
channel began. Most of the cars used were of the pattern called
battleships, carrying fifty cubic yards of rock, and the trains were
so handled that for several days, or until the fill was above the
danger point, one car of rock was dumped on the average of every
five minutes, night and day. This plan was successful. The Hind Dam
was completed and the water turned down its old channel toward the
Gulf of California on the 4th of November, 1908.
The river did not stay long turned,
however. A few weeks after the closure had been made, a flood came
down the river which broke under the earth levees which had been
constructed from the Hind Dam down the river for the purpose of
preventing an overflow from entering the channel below the dam.
The floods which had occurred during
the year 1905-1906 had caused a deep deposit of silt upon the lands
below the dam. This silt deposit was filled with cracks, and when
the Hind Dam was completed, the water at first raised above the
natural ground surface and lay against the levee to a depth of from
four to eight inches in the neighborhood of where the second break
occurred.
Even this slight pressure of water
found its way beneath the levee in many different places, and a
large gang of men was required to prevent it from breaking; but
nothing was done to make it safe, and when the next flood came down
the river in December, 1906, it broke under the levee and again the
water turned down to the Salton Sea.
This second break was closed in the
same manner as the first had been, on the 11th day of February,
1907. After repairing the second break the levees were rebuilt and
extended farther down the river and, in my opinion, they will now
stand any pressure that may come against them, and I believe that
the people of the Imperial Valley are now entirely safe from the
probability of destruction due to future floods in the Colorado
River, and that these floods may not occur, not because it is
impossible that the flood waters of the Colorado should again find
their way to the Salton Sea, but as the river has been twice turned,
it can be turned again by the same means should it ever become
necessary to do so.
The people of the Imperial Valley
have naturally expected great things of the management of the
Southern Pacific, believing that an enterprise backed by all its
millions and its natural interest in the development of the traffic
would at once surge ahead; that all necessary work to put the entire
enterprise in a safe and satisfactory condition for the distribution
of water would be done, and that the work would be rapidly carried
on to cover the entire acreage available for irrigation within the
Valley.
Two years have now passed since the
final closure was made, and on the 20th day of next June four years
will have passed since the Southern Pacific assumed absolute charge
of the management of the affairs of the California Development
Company, and yet, during that time, I doubt if sixty miles of new
canals and ditches have been built, and I doubt if to exceed 5000
more people are now in the Valley than were here on the 20th day of
June, 1905.
The old company, hampered as it was
by lack of funds and the erroneous beliefs of the world regarding
the possibilities of this region, began its work of construction at
the Colorado River in September, 1900. It brought the first little
trickle of water down through what is known as the Boundary Ditch at
Calexico on the 21st day of June, 1901. It was not able to turn
water into its main canal for irrigation until March, 1902.
Practically then the history of development in the hands of the old
management, dates from the time when we turned over the management
to the Southern Pacific on the 20th day of June, 1905; a period of
four years. During that time, in spite of all that we had during the
early period to overcome, we built nearly 800 miles of canals; we
sold water rights covering approximately 210,000 acres of land, and
we brought into the Valley not less than 15,000 people.
It must be remembered though that
nearly two years of the Southern Pacific control was spent in
turning the floods that threatened to destroy all, that it has been
hampered by many adverse court decisions against the California
Development Company, and it is a question as to whether any
financial men placed in the same position that they are would have
done more than they have, except that a different administration
might have before this cleared the ground for future action and
might have effected a reorganization which must undoubtedly be
accomplished before the great work can again go ahead smoothly.
Court decisions have been rendered
which would naturally make the Southern Pacific, or any financial
institution in its place, hesitate before spending more money in the
Valley for the benefit of others. The decision of the United States
Federal Court gave to the Liverpool Salt Company in a suit which it
brought against the California Development Company for destroying
its works a judgment of $450,000. The Southern Pacific does not,
naturally, care to pay this judgment. Some of the people of the
Imperial Valley combined and assigned to one Jones innumerable
claims for damages, some real, some fictitious, all exaggerated, but
aggregating in the total amount some $470,000. The Southern Pacific
cannot be responsible for that damage, nor does it care to create
additional wealth, additional assets, for the California Development
Company that might be taken to pay those damage claims should Jones
succeed in obtaining a judgment against the company.
I understand that plans had been
drawn and consent had been given for the expenditure of a large
amount of money for the construction of permanent gates in the main
canal. above Sharps, when a decision rendered by the Federal Court
in Los Angeles cast doubt upon the legality of the contracts entered
into between the mutual companies and the California Development
Company, and also threw a serious doubt upon the value of all water
stocks and upon the value of future investments that might be made
by the Southern Pacific in the canal system. Following this decision
then they ordered all work stopped and notified the present
management of the California Development Company that it must depend
entirely upon resources obtained from water rentals or from the sale
of such water stocks as people might see fit to buy.
(The decision referred to above was
reversed by Judge Welborn in February, 1900. ----Ed.).
If these water rentals were paid
promptly it is doubtful if they would be sufficient to operate
successfully the system, but I understand they have not been all
paid and the present management of the company, like the old, is
hampered in its work by inadequate funds.
A new chapter has now been opened in
the affairs of the Valley and in the affairs of the California
Development Company by a suit brought on the 9th day of January,
1909, against the company by the Southern Pacific for,
approximately, $1,400,000, the company suing on promissary notes
given to the Southern Pacific Railroad Company and by the Southern
Pacific management of the California Development Company. We may
hope, however, that instead of this suit further complicating the
situation and retarding development indefinitely, that it may prove
an advantage to all concerned by clearing the ground and leaving it
clean for future growth.
Fight
on for C.D. Control. A late letter from Mr. Rockwood
Los
Angeles, Cal., May 12, 1909.
To the people of Imperial Valley:
It is with regret that I announce to
you that on Saturday, May 8, 1909, Mr. W. F. Herrin, the head of the
legal department of the Southern Pacific, acting for that company,
decided not to accept the proposition recently made by the
stockholders of the California Development Company, whereby we
agreed to sell to the Southern Pacific Company all of the stock of
the C. D. Co., for $250,000, being $20 per share, or one-fifth of
its par value. The price at which we offered the stock equals only
about $1 per acre for the lands now under water stock and 25 cents
per acre for the total irrigable area of the Valley.
The revenues from water rentals for this
year, 1909, will equal the total amount that we have asked the
Southern Pacific Company to pay us for our equity in this great
enterprise, that was with your help and theirs created by us, an
enterprise that, though still in its infancy, too young as yet to
even dream the story of its future greatness, increased the revenues
of the great Southern Pacific Company during the year 1908 by nearly
two and one-half million dollars. They will undoubtedly deny these
figures and I cannot prove them, but my information came directly
from a high official of the company, whose name I will not give as
such information is not for us common people, and I do not wish to
embarrass my friend by subjecting him to reprimand from the higher
ups.
The little we have asked them to pay us
out of their much is, we believe, far below the sum that we are
justly entitled to for our part in building up the Imperial empire
of the southwest. A year ago we made a proposition to the Southern
Pacific Company to settle our differences. They refused it. We had
made others since, all of which have been ignored, and they never
made to us a counter proposition, unless that we pay back to them
all of the money they have squandered in mismanaging our affairs,
with interest, be considered a proposition. This sum, which includes
freight at $12 a ton, $18 per cubic yard, on much of the rock that
was used in closing the break, amounts, according to their
statement, to approximately $4,000,000, and unless we are prepared
to pay them this sum they have decided that we who have created for
them a revenue of $2,500,000 per year, are entitled to no
consideration from them.
This is of interest to you, of vital
interest, and for that reason I am taking you into my confidence and
telling you these things that mean the retarding of the development
of our great Valley unless we, the stockholders and owners of the
California Development Company, who conceived and planned this
enterprise and put into it our all, give up that all to satisfy the
rapacity of the Southern Pacific Company.
When we offered them the stock at $20
per share we offered them nearly all. We offered it because we hoped
that if we gave them title to the property that they would use their
great power and resources to develop it. I am informed that the
attorneys for the Southern Pacific in Los Angeles and San Francisco
advised settlement on this basis, that this was also the desire of
Messrs. Cory and Doran, the Southern Pacific managers of the
California Development Company, but Mr. Espes Randolph and Mr. W. F.
Herrin control, and they decided against it, and instructed the Los
Angeles attorney to begin marshaling their legal hosts against us.
The fight is on. I am sorry for your
sakes as well as my own, but I think there are but few of you who
can in your hearts expect or ask us to do more than we have.
Personally I have given sixteen years out of the middle of my life
in turning the Colorado Desert into the Imperial Valley. I have
succeeded, not alone to be sure. Without the help of the brains and
money of my associates I could have done nothing. Without the help
of the Southern Pacific in time to save all our efforts might have
been fruitless, but that they did save no more entitles them to say
to us, the stockholders, give us all in payment, than it does say to
you, give us the farm we saved for you.
I try not to be egotistical, but when
I now ride through our fields of waving grain and look miles across
broad acres of alfalfa, dotted here and there with comfortable
homes, and the evidence of a prosperous people, and think of that
day, more than sixteen years back, when, without a wagon track or
trail to guide me, I first crossed the then uninhabited solitude, I
know that I have accomplished that which is given to but few to do,
and while my reward is mostly in doing that which I undertook to do
so, still I believe that in my work I have honestly earned in that
visible evidence of success, money, a competency. But I do not
expect it now out of my work in the Valley unless I can acquire it
in the future through the same opportunities that have been given to
you.
Personally I own 712 shares of
California Development Company stock. At the price it was offered to
the Southern Pacific Company I would have received $16,240, not a
very magnificent money reward to be sure; but even this they
refused, and now to get it or anything I must fight through this
long, tedious process of the courts. In the fight I, we, want and
hope to receive the sympathy and moral support of the Valley people.
The time must come when you, the
people, will own the great water system on which you are so entirely
dependent, and now that your land titles are being adjusted the time
may be not far away when you can offer a security that would permit
you to purchase. Hope then, for your own sakes, if not ours, that we
may win, for undoubtedly the price we will ask of you will be but a
small part of the demands of the Southern Pacific Company.
I believe that in this fight we are
legally and morally right, and that the courts of our land will not
oblige us, or you, to return to the Southern Pacific Company the
millions unnecessarily spent, and spent in any case not for our
protection but for their own, and I believe we will win, and if we
do, you do.
Requesting then your patience and
your continued good-will, I remain,
Yours sincerely,
C. R. Rockwood.