NHC Home TeacherServe Nature Transformed Wilderness Essay:

The Challenge of the Arid West
Donald Worster, University of Kansas
©National Humanities Center

Illustration Credits
Description Repository/ID Information
Death Valley National Monument, Panamint Mountains, Inyo County, California, no date. California Academy of Sciences, Photographer: Charles Webber.
Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1873. National Archives / Smithsonian Institution, NWDNS-106-WB-314.
John Wesley Powell, ca. 1871-c.1907. National Archives / Smithsonian Institution, NWDNS-106-IN-218.
John Wesley Powell's second expedition (before the start) just below U. P. Railroad bridge at Green River, Wyoming Territory, left bank with boats (Powell sixth from left), 1871. National Archives, NWDNS-57-PS-506.
Hoover Dam on the Colorado River, Nevada, May 1972. National Archives / Environmental Protection Agency, NWDNS-412-DA-5358.
Overflow, Roosevelt Dam, Salt River, Arizona, 1916. Library of Congress PAN US GEOG - Arizona, no. 85.
"Women water-carriers." Native American women standing on a stream bank collect water. They use travois attached to dogs to transport the full pots to their village in the distance; 1870(?); illustration in Appleton's Journal, August 13, 1870, p. 179. Denver Public Library, Western History Collection.
Irrigating in Colorado; unidentified man standing in irrigation ditch somewhere in Colorado, between 1900 and 1910. Denver Public Library, Western History Collection.
Sod house, Kearney, Buffalo County, Nebraska, no date. Wichita State University, Special Collections and University Archives, Sod House Photograph Collection.
Paiute woman grinding seeds in doorway of thatched hut, small boy in foreground, no location named, Colorado River valley, 1872. National Archives, NWDNS-57-PE-7.
United States relief map. Johns Hopkins University, Applied Physics Laboratory.
Map, total precipitation (inches), January-December 2000, United States (contiguous). Climate Prediction Center, National Centers for Environmental Prediction, National Weather Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U.S. Department of Commerce.
100th meridian historic marker, Central, South Dakota, 1983. Paul Starrs, Professor of Geography, University of Nevada at Reno, in The Geo-Images Project of G. Donald Bain, Director, Geography Computing Facility, University of California at Berkeley.
Pack burros and people gather at a spring (below a mesa) which has provided the water supply for the Moki (Hopi) Indian pueblo of Walpi (Arizona) for 400 years; 1899. Denver Public Library, Western History Collection.
Large elevated woodframe Orchard Mesa irrigation ditch leading to ditch in hillside, Mesa County, Colorado; shows gate on water flow control on elevated portion of ditch, orchards, woodframe building and residences, and a cultivated field; 1911(?). Denver Public Library, Western History Collection.
Irrigation ditch, Kansas, no date; inscription reads "J. W. Lough's irrigation ditch Scott Co, Kans." Wichita State University, Special Collections and University Archives, Kansas and the West Photograph Collection.
Five-foot irrigation canal (Twin Lakes Canal of the Nation Beet Sugar Company) on Main Street, Sugar City, Crowely County, Colorado; water is directed from the Arkansas River to irrigate the beet fields; 1900. Denver Public Library, Western History Collection.
Irrigation canal, near Holtville in the Imperial Valley, California, May 1972. National Archives / Environmental Protection Agency, NWDNS-412-DA-6546.
Large silt plume in reservoir off Lake Powell, 1989. Bill Wolverton, Glen Canyon Institute.
Imperial Dam takes last of Colorado River water for the United States. It diverts water into All-American Canal. Desilting basins in center background; May 1972. National Archives / Environmental Protection Agency, NWDNS-412-DA-6360.
Aerial of White Run and Grandview Point in Canyonlands National Park. Town of Moab, Utah, on the Colorado River is supply center for the area. National Archives / Environmental Protection Agency, NWDNS-412-DA-10574.
Kansas (?), no date; inscription reads "Approaching dust storm in Middle West. #24 Conard." Wichita State University, Special Collections and University Archives, Kansas and the West Photograph Collection.
Dust storm rises over Phoenix on Labor Day, 1972. No rain had fallen in the area for 153 days; June 1972. National Archives / Environmental Protection Agency, NWDNS-412-DA-1585.
Palm Springs subdivision, Palm Springs, California, 1988. From notes: "The search for recreation, the good life, warm climes, and sanctuary from the torments of inner city urban life are all part and parcel of the booming of Palm Springs as both a destination resort, and as a final retirement repose for rich Californians. . . . Palm Springs now has something for everyone. At great cost in water, agriculture, diversity, and energy. But that is sometimes held to be around in plenty; only time will tell." Paul Starrs, Professor of Geography, University of Nevada at Reno, in The Geo-Images Project of G. Donald Bain, Director, Geography Computing Facility, University of California at Berkeley.
Jawbone Siphon near Mojave, California (completed in 1913, as seen in 1988), part of the Owens Valley aqueduct system delivering water to Los Angeles. The Geo-Images Project, G. Donald Bain, Director, Geography Computing Facility, University of California at Berkeley.
Unused subdivision laid out in 1948 in the Mojave Desert, California, as seen in 1978. National Archives / Environmental Protection Agency, NWDNS-412-DA-25.

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