Precious Water : A Survey of Historical Irrigation Records in the U.S. and Their Application to Contemporary Water Resource Issues

The Hohokam Indians are credited with creating the first irrigation systems in the United States around 300 A.D. With the influx of European immigration and settlement in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, irrigation and drainage technology became more advanced. However, it wasn’t until the early twentieth century and World War II that the Bureau of Reclamation developed irrigation and drainage into a modern engineering science. As a result, state and local irrigation and drainage districts and commission and hundreds of irrigation and drainage companies were created. Over time, the records of these agencies and companies were often destroyed or lost to time. Fortunately, many records were donated to, or collected by, archives and preserved for future use. This article describes key sources of irrigation and drainage records generated by federal, state and local agencies and private companies that are accessible to water resource professionals. Also described are secondary sources of historical irrigation and drainage information that may be useful in solving contemporary problems and issues