Music All over the world, the development of rivers has always
been part of man's progress.
His conquest of rivers and his improvement of them for his own use, and straited
by the rivers of our own west.
Let's consider the four main rivers of the Pacific Slope to see for ourselves how
important they are, and how they have been made useful to the
people of the western United States.
In the northwest, the Columbia River has played a vital role in the
development of Washington and Oregon.
The Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers are equally important to the great
central valley of California.
And the Colorado River is of tremendous value to seven states in our southwest.
Starting with the Columbia, let us look at each of the four rivers.
The Columbia, five miles wide at its mouth, is deep enough to carry big ocean
vessels upstream for a distance of 100 miles.
As much as 10 million tons of freight are carried each
year by ships on the Columbia.
One of the many products of the Pacific Northwest is lumber.
Washington and Oregon are the greatest lumber producing states in our country.
From their great forests, some of the timber is carried on the Columbia River in
the form of log rafts.
Small tugs tow the rafts to saw mills on the river's banks.
Here the logs are cut into lumber and then loaded into freighters for shipment
down the Columbia and out into the Pacific Ocean to the ports of the world.
Another valuable product that is carried on the great Columbia waterway is wheat.
Wheat that is grown in the Columbia River basin.
The Columbia River is also the home of salmon and yields much of the
nation's supply of this fish.
Salmon are caught in the river and also in the ocean along the Pacific coast.
About 70 million pounds of salmon are caught each year
in the Pacific coast states.
From canneries such as this, salmon are shipped down the Columbia
to many parts of the world.
Center of shipping and commerce on the Columbia is the city of Portland, located
on the Willamette River, a tributary of the Columbia.
One of the newer industries along the Columbia is the refining of aluminum.
Such metal industries require a tremendous supply of electricity, which is
furnished by Bonneville Dam.
More than a half million kilowatts of electric energy are produced
in Bonneville's powerhouse.
The dam not only puts the Columbia River to work producing power, but it improves
navigation by deepening the river above the dam and by providing locks which lift
the river boats from the lower river to the higher level above the dam.
Far upstream, deep in the state of Washington, the Columbia is spanned by another
dam, Grand Coulee, one of the greatest structures in the world.
This dam was built to supply water for irrigation and water for power.
Here is water for power, water that tumbles down 500 feet with tremendous force
to turn the generators that produce electricity.
And here is water for irrigation, a vast reservoir held by the dam.
Eventually, this water will be used to irrigate more than a million acres of land
and thus bring new wealth to the Pacific Northwest.
Irrigation is the principal purpose for which man has developed the Sacramento
and San Joaquin rivers in the great Central Valley of California.
The land in the Central Valley is fertile, but it
needs water to make it productive.
To supply this water, two great dams were completed in 1944.
One of these is Shasta Dam on the headwaters of the Sacramento River.
Some of the water held by this dam comes from the slopes of Mount Shasta.
Although its main function is to store water, Shasta Dam provides flood control
and is a source of electric power for the people of the valley it serves.
The other dam in the Central Valley is Freunt Dam on the San Joaquin River.
It supplies water to the southern half of the great Central Valley.
From the dam, a precious water of the San Joaquin River is carefully distributed
through a network of irrigation canals.
Booster stations pump the water to higher canals and control gates regulate the
flow into smaller canals until the water finally reaches the fields.
Two million acres of land will eventually benefit from the Sacramento and
San Joaquin river systems.
Not only have these two rivers made the Central Valley of California a region of
agricultural wealth, but they are also used for commerce.
Both rivers flow into the Bay of San Francisco, and goods from that seaport are
shipped up the Sacramento River to the city of Sacramento, and up the San Joaquin
River to the inland port of Stockton.
And so, two rivers, the Sacramento and the San Joaquin, are used by men to
increase crops, to carry commerce, and to develop power in the
Central Valley of California.
The Colorado River is an outstanding example of a river which man
has put to his own use.
From its source in the Rocky Mountains, the Colorado flows
south through Utah and Arizona.
Much of this region is dry wasteland, and the river itself is normally shallow
and of no use for navigation.
Yet man has made this river of great value.
Imperial Dam on the lower Colorado diverts the precious water from the river into
a vast irrigation system.
This dam does not store water, but channels it through these big roller gates
and into this desilting basin.
After the sand and mud settle to the bottom, the clean, clear water enters
the All-American Canal.
For a hundred miles, this man-made canal carries the water of the Colorado River
through the desert of Southern California, to the Imperial
Valley, and the Coachella Valley.
Here, the water is carefully directed onto the land.
The result is surprising.
Land that was once dry and barren yields rich crops when irrigated.
With the help of water from the Colorado, man has created new
wealth in Southern California.
But the Colorado does much more.
Farther up the river, above Imperial Dam, is Parker Dam.
Parker Dam was built not for irrigation, but to divert water
for the city of Los Angeles.
From this reservoir behind Parker Dam, a million gallons of water a day pass
through this pumping station and into the Los Angeles aqueduct.
For 300 miles over mountains and through the desert, the water is pumped
until it reaches Los Angeles.
And there is still one more project that man has
built to make use of the Colorado.
That project is Hoover Dam, one of the biggest structures ever made by
man to put a river to work.
The great reservoir behind Hoover Dam is called Lake Mead.
The water is used for irrigation and to supply the homes and factories in cities
of Southern California, Arizona, and Nevada.
The water also produces electric power for more than three
million users in the Southwest.
The dam itself eliminates the rushing spring floods of the river.
Below Hoover Dam, the Colorado River flows evenly throughout the year, a useful
and valuable servant to the people of the great Southwest.
In addition to its tremendous economic importance, the Colorado offers
beauty and recreation.
This is the Grand Canyon of the Upper Colorado, one of the
scenic wonders of the world.
This famous canyon is another asset of the Colorado, one of the most beautiful
and useful rivers of the Pacific Slope.
These rivers, as we have seen, are the Columbia in the Pacific Northwest, the
Sacramento and San Joaquin in California, and the Colorado in the Southwest.
The Columbia, you remember, is a wide, deep river that carries ocean-going ships.
Navigation on the Columbia is improved by Bonneville Dam, and electric power for
the Northwest is supplied by Grand Coulee Dam.
In California, both the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers are used for shipping,
but remember that they are more valuable for irrigating the great
Central Valley of California.
In the Southwest, it is the Colorado which has been put to work, irrigating
Southern California and Arizona, supplying water to Los Angeles, and creating
electric power for the Southwest.
In our four rivers of the Pacific Slope, we have seen examples of the many ways
in which man has put rivers to work for his own benefit.
The development of the Pacific Slope is part of the story of man and his use of
rivers in our changing world.