The Arid Region: Devoted to Irrigation and Development. Vol. 2, No. 4, June, 1892

Denver: The Arid Region, 1892. First edition. 24x17cm, 32pp. Illustrations, advertisements, printed in double column throughout. Original illustrated wrappers chipped and toned at edges, few vertical creases, clean and complete internally. Very good.

Uncommon single issue of this periodical on irrigation, mining, and development in the western states.  Published in Denver, "the center and metropolis of the so-called 'Arid Region,' and the most beautiful and prosperous city in America," according to the publisher.  Articles on the fruit trade in California, water reports from the dry land states of Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Arizona, New Mexico, Wyoming, Utah, California, Washington, and Kansas, and others.  

By this time, westerners were realizing the irrigation needed to further develop the land would require a large amount of capital, and started lobbying congress for aid.  This and other publications were meant to inform the public on such efforts, and further the cause.  In 1894, Congress passed the Carey Act which was a federal land grant for the Western States to which irrigation project requirements were attached.  A decade later, in 1902, The Newlands Reclamation Act passed, which allowed large water projects to be constructed directly with federal funds.


Worldcat locates 3 holdings for this important journal, which began publication in 1891..