The First Thirty Years, being an Account of the Principal Events in the History of Imperial Valley, Southern California, USA, 1901-1931

This thirties era history details the principal events of the conversion of Western desert into farmland in the Imperial Valley of Southern California. With water districts of southern California jockeying for increased water supplies from the overtaxed Colorado River, the book is relevant to anyone interested in the west's water problems.

The 430-page volume, The First Thirty Years is dedicated "to the pioneer plowmen and planters whose courage and endurance enabled them to break the spell of the desert that the people might have bread ... the hardy engineers ... the masters of finance ... the working men with stalwart muscles ..." The lives of these and many others are described in the book, which was written by pioneer California newspaperman, Otis B. Tout. He published his work in 1931, covering the first 30 years of development of the Imperial County of California. The county lies on the Mexican border, and is fed by water from the Colorado River to the east. It is one of the most productive agricultural counties in the nation.

The book had been out of print for more than 50 years when this facsimile edition was printed by the Imperial County Historical Society in 1990. The book traces the history of the Valley from the first white visitors - the Spaniards - to the area in the 1700s. Trappers, including Kit Carson, reportedly visited the area, and the Butterfield Overland Stage Route crossed the area in 1858-1861. The Gold Rush brought Dr. Oliver Wozencraft to the area; his crossing of the desert with seven men, mules and a pack train in 1849 is an epic of endurance. Realizing that the area could be made fertile by irrigation by gravity from the Colorado River, he spent the next 38 years fruitlessly attempting to interest private and government bodies to take an interest in the area. Later entrepreneurs took up the challenge, and their tribulations are detailed here, as is the flooding of the Colorado River which burst the inadequate dam structures and imperiled the lives of settlers and promoters.

The tale of the Southern Pacific's engineers mammoth battle with the flooded Colorado River is one of the epics of California history. The book is rich with photographs, biographies, maps, profiles of the different Valley com-munities and the people who settled them. Many of the principals tell their stories in their own words.

It is an important reference work for anyone interested in the conquest and development of California's last frontier. It is all the more relevant today, when the water diverted from the Colorado River for agriculture is the subject of acquisitive interest by metropolitan areas which have overdrawn their water allotments from the Colorado River.