The Federal Transformation of the Colorado River: Six Publications on Hydrology, Reclamation, and Infrastructure, 1933–1970

Colorado River Industrial Development

Archive

Colorado River development publications from 1933 to 1970, documenting the federal transformation of the river at a scale that continues to shape water rights, regional growth, and the ecology of the American West. The group traces the movement from basinwide stream measurement to large-scale storage, hydroelectric generation, irrigation, municipal supply, and industrial planning, culminating in the construction of Glen Canyon Dam and the creation of Lake Powell. Together, the publications record the governmental and technical systems that made extensive control of the Colorado River possible, while noting the environmental consequences and increasingly contested allocation of a finite water supply.

Group of six reports and illustrated brochures.
[1] Grover, Nathan C., et al. Surface Water Supply of the United States, 1933. Part 9, Colorado River Basin. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1935. Geological Survey Water Supply Paper 749, recording gaging stations and discharge across the Colorado River system.
[2] Grover, Nathan C., et al. Surface Water Supply of the United States, 1937. Part 9, Colorado River Basin. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1938. Geological Survey Water Supply Paper 829, with expanded records for Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming.
[3] Dietrich, John W., and John T. Lonsdale. Mineral Resources of the Colorado River Industrial Development Association Area. Austin: Bureau of Economic Geology, University of Texas, 1958. Report of Investigations No. 37, surveying building stone, limestone, clay, lignite, salt, sulfur, and related resources in ten Texas counties.
[4] United States Bureau of Reclamation. Colorado River Storage Project. Circa 1970. Illustrated brochure explaining interstate allocation, irrigation, municipal supply, reservoirs, and power financing.
[5] United States Bureau of Reclamation. Colorado River Storage Project Power Operations Center, Montrose, Colorado. Circa 1970. Folding brochure describing the operation of storage units, powerplants, and approximately 1,800 miles of transmission lines.
[6] United States Bureau of Reclamation. Glen Canyon Dam and Powerplant: Technical Record of Design and Construction. Denver, 1970. Extensively illustrated technical record with pencil annotations and page references concerning surveys, diversion tunnels, spillways, dam elevations, archaeology, temperature records, and construction chronology.

The two Geological Survey volumes preserve the hydrological data used to quantify and divide the river before the era of major Upper Basin dams. The Glen Canyon record documents the engineering of one of the most consequential and controversial water projects in the American West, whose reservoir inundated Glen Canyon and permanently altered downstream flow, sediment movement, temperature, habitat, and access to the river. The Texas mineral survey and Reclamation brochures place this development within a broader program of industrial expansion, irrigated agriculture, municipal growth, and federally financed electrical infrastructure. Light to moderate wrapper wear, toning, rubbing, and occasional staining; pronounced discoloration to the mineral report; extensive pencil annotation in the Glen Canyon volume. Overall good condition. The archive records the policies and engineering that reshaped the Colorado River, with enduring relevance to environmental history, water scarcity, western development, and the struggle over who controls and benefits from the region’s water.

Item #23683

Price: $450.00