Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Things to see - The Virgin River

Winding and carving through numerous steep, sandstone canyons, the Virgin River descends over 7,500 feet from its headwaters high in the Cedar Mountains down 160 miles to its termination in Lake Mead. The Virgin winds through Utah, Arizona and Nevada and supplies sustenance for all who live
The early inhabitants of the region, the Anasazi and later, the Paiutes, diverted the Virgin to cultivate their crops and to survive in the harsh and arid climate. The Mormon pioneers were the next to try to harness the wealth of the Virgin. By 1857 the area became known as “Utah’s Dixie.” The pioneers had learned through trial and error the power of the Virgin. They constructed dams that were destroyed by floods. They diverted the river and caused it to dry up for miles. But the early pioneers learned enough about the river to establish lasting settlements all along it. Springdale, Rockville, Virgin, La Verkin, Hurricane, Washington, St. George, and Bloomington were all settled along the Virgin by the early 1900s and relied on its water for survival.


More on the Virgin River
In the very early history of this area the river was called the Rio Vergen. Later the spelling was changed to Virgen and then to Virgin as it is known today. It has been a blessing and curse to people who settled this area in may of 1857 when the town of Washington was Established. These early pioneers were called by Brigham Young to come and grow cotton. This was the Beginning of the cotton mission, also known as the southern mission. Thirty-Eight families came in 1857, all selected because they were southerners. Brigham Young knew they had grown cotton or at least had seen it grown. There was a lot of water around the city that came from springs but not a lot of flat farmable land. They knew they had to control the Virgin so that water could be diverted onto the flat land south of the river known as the Washington Fields to produce the crops that were needed. It appeared to be relatively easy to divert this water since the water needed to be raised only a few feet. Just north of Shinob Kiab mesa they built a brush dam to divert this water into a canal which then carried it to the various farms along its path supplying water for the crops. The dam washed out twice the first year they were here, twice more in ’58, three times in ’59 and at least once every year thereafter until the Washington Fields Dam was built in 1891. This was an extremely difficult time and undertaking for these early pioneers. The water was cold and some had to stand in it waist deep for hours as they put brush and rocks in the river. The hardships of working on the dam, plus poor food and the rampant spread of malaria almost caused the cotton mission to fail. The people’s complexions actually had a bluish cast because of the effects of malaria. The river was full of quicksand which cased the dams to wash out when the excess water spilled over the spillway, and quickly washed away the sand the dam was built on. In 1886 they started a pile dam that was to solve all their problems. Four rows of wooden piles were driven into the river to form an anchor on which the pile dam could be built. In 1889 it was completed and water was diverted onto the farms. On December 7, 1889, a flood came down the river and washed out half of the dam. They called a meeting to solve this problem and on the same day, December 15, another flood came down the river and washed the dam completely away. The people were discouraged and devastated. Half of the population left the area. Half of the homes were vacant. Those remaining were too poor to leave. It was decided to find a new and better location for a dam. John P. Chidester was the engineer for both of these dams and was a longtime resident of Washington. It was completed in 1891 and all of the new canal was finished in 1893. Five tunnels (Whitehead-Morris-Clark, Schlappi, Beard, Picket, and Sproul) were dug along the course of this canal using a star drill, single jack, shovel and wheelbarrow. This dam made it possible to farm more than twice the amount of land than the previous dams. This dam tamed the unruly Rio Virgin. The river went from a curse to a blessing by providing water for the farms insuring the success of this area.
The Virgin River is no less important today. And we are continuing to learn through trial and error how to control its power and volatility. It still floods. And lack of water is an especially pressing issue with the rapid growth the area is experiencing.




No comments:

Post a Comment