Cadillac Desert 1 Summary

'Cadillac Desert 1' includes the introduction and the first chapter. The author introduces the big picture of the western water system, including its canals and dams. In the West, the arid climate isn't suitable for plants growing. As the catastrophic of drought happened in the 1800s and the 1930s, Powell believes that a federal irrigation program can solve the problem for the West. Then, people were constantly building dams for about fifty years, because they can storage water, help to transport water to other areas, and also they can generate power for our use. In addition, the author describes the geographical expedition of the West, especially of the Great American Desert, by Spaniards and Americans in early time. The gold rush opens the way that people settled in the West. However, because of the climate, many things have to be changed, including cattle trade, domestic animals, population decline, etc. Then, the Federal Government use 183 million …show more content…
Firstly, the author describes the erosion, siltation, and water diversions of the Colorado River. Then People began to build the Hoover Dam. There are two different viewpoints. Some conservationists believe that there were many mistakes that human made from Colorado River, so people should stop dam construction. It is in contrast to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Ironically, the government provides many subsidies of public power production to local farmers, so that farmers can grow many water-hungry crops for nearly free that some farmers in the east cannot afford to grow. In Arizona, there is a variety of attempts to transform the Grand Canyon to a battery of reservoirs. The author also criticizes the Central Arizona Projects. Because of its wrong economics and politics, when farmers believed they the Congress can always protect them from going broke. But some Indian tribes realize they can request more because they have secured water