Yuma Project
It was the first dam and reclamation project on the Colorado River and workers had to overcome many natural and logistical obstacles to build and maintain it.
Although temperatures in the southern areas of Arizona and California tend to be hot and precipitation averages 3.5 inches (89 mm) a year, the region features a year-round farming season and the Colorado River.
The Bureau of Reclamation and the Yuma County Water Users' Association wanted to exploit these conditions and create a large area of irrigation-fed farming.
[1] Farmers immediately began constructing gravity-fed irrigation systems in the area which proved inconsistent and ultimately ineffective.
Subsequently, in 1903, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt turned the entire Fort Yuma Indian Reservation over to the Bureau of Reclamation for development.
On July 6, 1905 the contract to build the dam was awarded to J. G. White and Company who started construction less than two weeks later.
Even after their contract was supplemented to encompass the rock quality delays, J. G. White and Company still did not meet their deadline and the Bureau of Reclamation took over construction in early 1907.
[1] To solve the cement delivery problems, by March 1908, the Bureau of Reclamation built a levee on the California side on the dam that was topped by a rail-line.
Beforehand, they had also gained the cooperation of the Southern Pacific Railroad who agreed to deliver cement directly at the dam site.
The Yuma Main Canal continues 10.5 miles (16.9 km) southwest until it reaches the 9.9-foot (3.0 m) Siphon Drop Spillway where a power plant was later built in 1926.
After it reaches Yuma, it split into the East and West Main canals to pass through the Valley Division and to the Mexican border.
The Bureau of Reclamation decided to use pneumatic compressed air to finish the construction which sank the siphon further to 76 feet (23 m) and it began to operate on June 29, 1912.
The Reservation Division's drains discharge directly into the Colorado River and nearly one half of them are intended to intercept leaks from the nearby All-American Canal.
[2] A system of levees was also constructed between 1907-1909 in order to protect the banks of the Colorado River from flooding and its historical course-changing meandering.
This proved successful during a major flood in 1912 and the Bureau asked Southern Pacific Railway if another line could be built on the Yuma Valley levee but they were reluctant.
In 1918, the Colorado River's meandering damaged part of the Reservation levee and it was repaired slowly with unskilled labor because of World War I's troop demands.
