By Terry Munderloh
From Prescott's founding in 1864 until 1881, the city's water supply came from wells and a few erratically producing springs. A community water system didn't exist until workers sunk wells, one on each corner of the Courthouse Plaza, in 1881.
In 1883, a $70,000 bond issue financed Prescott's first "bona fide" water works. This included a dam across Miller Creek, housing for a wood-fired steam pump and a storage reservoir on South Mt. Vernon Street. With this new system, the pumps on the plaza became obsolete, so the city dismantled and sold them.
In 1887, the Miller Creek Dam water became unusually muddy, full of algae in summer, and furnished an ideal habitat for frogs and waterdogs. The same was true for the Mt. Vernon Street reservoir.
The City Council minutes of 1895, contained the following comments by Mayor Morris Goldwater about the water system: "...it gives no water fit for a human to drink, it is insufficient for garden irrigation or sprinkling purposes, and necessity only compels its use for bathing. At the time when water is most needed, we have it not."
On July 14, 1900, the Whiskey Row fire destroyed a large part of downtown Prescott. Before firemen extinguished it, the city fathers belatedly recognized the shortsightedness of their planning and the inadequacies of the communal water resources. The city's subsequent search for a supplemental water source ended at Del Rio.
In November of 1900, the city acquired from James and Sarah Baker two parcels: a 128-acre piece of land in Chino Valley and a separate, 2.07-acre parcel on which the main Del Rio Springs were located. In the same month, a deed from Ed G. Wells and his wife Rose Banghart conveyed as additional 231 acres to the city. All water rights to the three parcels came along with the deals.
A boiler and pumping equipment went in at the springhead and a 19.2-mile long pipeline soon brought water to Prescott's reservoir. The Journal Miner reported that the capacity of that spring was about 2,000,000 gallons a day and the daily pumping capacity was about 500,000 gallons under 750 pounds of pressure. The system went into operation in September 1901.
Our old city dads apparently felt so flush with their newfound water wealth that in May 1902, the city voted to also furnish water from Del Rio Springs to the Santa Fe Railroad for 72 cents per 6,600-gallon tank car load.
The Santa Fe, Prescott and Phoenix Railway completed its tributary line, which they named the "Peavine," because of the way it wound round and clung to the mountains, from Prescott through Granite Dells and Chino Valley to its juncture with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe line at Ash Fork in 1893. The railroad transported the potable water from Del Rio to the many locations along its northern lines that didn't have adequate water, including the towns of: Ash Fork, Seligman, Williams, Winslow and, eventually, the Grand Canyon.
While Prescott had been busy rebuilding its fire-ravaged downtown and searching for more water, Fred Harvey and the Santa Fe Railroad "discovered" the Grand Canyon. They didn't really discover the Grand Canyon, but they did make the canyon accessible and well known to modern travelers. In 1901, the Santa Fe purchased a bankrupt railroad that ran from Williams north to a copper mine in Anita. They extended the track to its new depot on the rim and offered passenger service to the Grand Canyon.
In the 1880s, travel to the canyon was possible for those intrepid sightseers willing to make the long, spine-jolting stagecoach ride from Williams. Once they arrived, they could either camp out or stay in the rough, rickety structure that was the forerunner of the Bright Angel Lodge.
In addition to water from the City of Prescott, the AT&SF had their own appropriation rights in Del Rio Springs to 10 miner's inches (110 gallons per minute) of water. This was based on a 99-year lease the railroad secured from the Bakers in 1898. With an assured water supply from the Del Rio, development of the Grand Canyon began in 1903, with the building of the El Tovar, a hotel designed after the great resorts of Europe, offering luxurious accommodations, amenities and the finest cuisine.
In 1909, the AT&SF Railroad, in conjunction with the Fred Harvey organization, embarked on a rather interesting enterprise. They took up dairy farming, purchasing 3,250 acres of land at Del Rio. The September 9, 1909, edition of the Journal Miner reported the following: "the intention is to cultivate the first year the soil with a grain hay and later this will give way to alfalfa. As soon as the land is in shape, the first consignment of dairy cattle will be placed on it, and it is probable that the feeding pens at Peach Springs will be abandoned. The Grand Canyon herds will come to Del Rio at practically the same time, these two stations being the most expensive points to maintain along the Santa Fe. Approximately inside of a year from the present time, a herd of 300 Holstein cows will be on pasture at the new location."
"Another interesting matter was also mentioned by the railroad spokesmen that will please the people of this section in the plan that has been decided upon to give Del Rio Dairy the widest channels of publicity. To the end every vessel, whether metallic, earthen or glass, will have a lithographic reproduction of the Del Rio Harvey Farm, and in addition to this display the table serving of this eating house will likewise portray the place in a natural scene."
"This movement has been decided upon from the fact that the government chemists at Washington have analyzed the waters of these springs and pronounced them the purest of any in the nation, with the possible exception of the famous Rock Springs, Wyoming product.
By 1913, several structures were finished at the Del Rio Ranch, including a bunkhouse, cow and horse barns, a milking barn, cooling towers and a mess hall. The ranch supplied all the milk and eggs to the western division of the Harvey Restaurant operations and was the wintering grounds for the famous Grand Canyon mules that took wide-eyed tourists down Bright Angel Trail.
According to Grace Converse, whose husband George managed the ranch for 30 years, 700 to 800 tons of hay were produced annually, with half of it going to the Grand Canyon to feed the dude and working stock. During the war, when beef was rationed, the farm raised over 5,000 turkeys a year for the Harvey House eateries.
The enterprise proved very successful and the railroad's operation of the ranch continued into the 1950s. The Prescott Courier of February 10, 1956, informed its readers: "Del Rio Ranch, original site of Fort Whipple, first semi-permanent location of government in the territory of Arizona and for many years the source of water for several northern Arizona towns including the Grand Canyon, will be sold by its present owner, the Santa Fe Railroad, this spring.
The Del Rio Ranch passed back into private ownership and remains private land today. Del Rio's far-reaching impact on the development of Arizona is a historical legacy we all share.
Terry Munderloh is a volunteer at the Sharlot Hall Museum and has done extensive research on the Del Rio Springs area, the results of which have appeared in this column over the past year.
Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number: (). Reuse only by permission.
The del Rio Ranch, in this photo from about 1925, supplied all the milk and eggs to the western division of the Harvey Restaurant operations and was the wintering grounds for the famous Grand Canyon mules that took wide-eyed tourists down Bright Angel Trail.