| Book Review | The Western Historical Quarterly, 36.2

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| Book Review | The Western Historical Quarterly, 36.2 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Ditches across the Desert: Irrigation in the Lower Pecos Valley. By Stephen Bogener. (Lubbock: Texas Tech University, 2003. 340 pp. Illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, index. $34.95.)

With drought conditions presently devastating much of the West, water management has become an urgent issue for scholars and the general public. As water litigation makes headlines in western newspapers, historical studies drawn from archival sources can explain some of our current difficulties. Stephen Bogener's book, Ditches across the Desert, presents a well-researched account of irrigation development in the Pecos Valley of southeastern New Mexico, a region beset with chronic water problems. Cattle ranchers initiated settlement in the valley, but in the 1880s, a few visionaries recognized its potential for large-scale irrigated agriculture. The proposed development required construction of an extensive network of dams, flumes, and canals, which were financed with eastern capital. By 1900, investors had poured more than $2.5 million into the project, but a national economic depression coincided with catastrophic floods in the valley to shatter their dreams. Property owners sought help from the federal government to rebuild the crippled infrastructure. Although the newly-formed U. S. Reclamation Service was reluctant to intervene, under pressure from the White House, the agency took over the project in 1905, beginning a stormy relationship with valley water users that persisted intermittently for many years.

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