Colorado River Compact
Decade:
In 1922 Wyoming, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, and California signed the Colorado River Compact to help divide water from the Colorado River fairly among the seven states it passes through. Almost immediately, politicians and citizens of all these states began to fight against the approval of the Compact, and it would not be approved until 1944.
Read About It
Use the document analysis sheet and the photograph analysis sheet to uncover clues about the people that created the documents.
- 1st Report Colorado River Comm
- 2nd Report Colorado River Comm
- Profile of Colorado River from Dolores River to Gulf of Mexico
- Copy of the Colorado River Compact
- Copy of a letter from Governor Hunt to H. B. Hovland, January 10, 1924
- Letter from Arizona State Engineer Thomas Maddock to Governor Hunt, December 1, 1927
- Copy of Flood Regulation on the Colorado River as Affected by the Existing and Proposed Works on the Gila River and its Tributaries
- Proposal submitted to the delegates representing the States of California and Nevada in reference to the development of the Colorado River / submitted by the Arizona delegation, December 14, 1925.
- Statement before the Federal Power Commission by the Arizona-Colorado River Conference committee : concerning the development and utilization of the resources of the Colorado River
- Map of Colorado River Drainage Basin Below Green River, Utah
- Why you should vote "yes" on propositions 100 and 102 : statement by the Colorado River Commission of Arizona
- Letter from Genevieve Bratton to K. Berry Peterson, November 15, 1929, re: Arizona water rights
Understand It
- When was the Colorado River Compact created? When was it approved?
- Who created the documents linked above? What did they think of the Colorado River Compact? Is there a bias in their writing?
- Who has a right to use the water from the Colorado River? What should it be used for? Are all the groups who have a right to water from the Colorado represented in the documents above?
- Would you have approved the Colorado River Compact? Why or why not?
Resources
Find a document in the Arizona State Library catalog that would be a good addition to this topic? Have a suggestion for another Arizona Research Topic? Contact us.