HAER No. AZ-17 and AZ-30, Grand Canal and Crosscut Hydro Plant, North Side of Salt River, Tempe and Phoenix, Maricopa County, Arizona: Photographs, Written Historical and Descriptive Data, Reduced Copies of Drawings

Summary

Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) No. AZ-17 presents a written historical summary and relevant historical documentation about the construction and use of Grand Canal, which delivers water to users on the north side of the Salt River for agricultural, industrial, and municipal uses. Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) No. AZ-30 provides similar documentation about the construction and operation of the Crosscut Hydroelectric Plant, which sits at the head of Grand Canal and relies on canal water flow to generate power. The reports contain narrative descriptions, photographs, drawings, and maps.

Although the Salt River Valley and the Phoenix Metropolitan area lie within a semi-arid, desert-like region of central Arizona, modern farming and urban development were made possible by the damming of the Salt and Verde rivers by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation during the early 1900s. While the Salt River Valley was developing as a result of successful efforts to control the river's flow for irrigation, the young cities of the Valley were experiencing the social and technological changes of the late 19th century. One of these was the coming of the electrical age. The first widespread use of electricity in the Valley was to increase the amount of the irrigated acreage by pumping groundwater. Due to a lack of readily accessible fuel, valley citizens soon realized the importance of hydroelectric generation, and the Salt River Project (SRP) realized the importance of developing it. The Crosscut Hydro plant was the largest and most important low-head hydro plant built on the SRP canal system. It was also the center of the SRP electrical distribution system for many years. The hydro plant was built at the head of the Grand Canal (see HAER No. AZ-17) and has always been operationally dependent on the flow of water through the Grand Canal to generate power.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Salt River Project Digital Library

Keywords

Temporal Coverage

Calendar Date: 1917 to 1989 (operation and use history of Grand Canal)

Calendar Date: 1937 to 1938 (conversion of Crosscut Hydro Plant to 60-cycle power generation and addition of de-silting basin)

Calendar Date: 1907 to 1916 (enlargement, extension, and partial realignment of Grand Canal)

Calendar Date: 1939 to 1976 (operation and use history of the Crosscut Hydro Plant)

Calendar Date: 1988 to 1989 (realignment of the upper end of Grand Canal)

Calendar Date: 1878 to 1879 (initial construction of Grand Canal)

Calendar Date: 1913 to 1914 (initial construction of the Crosscut Hydro Plant)

Calendar Date: 1915 to 1938 (operation of Crosscut Hydro Plant to deliver power to SRP customers)

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Salt River Project Cultural Resource Manager

Sponsor(s): USDI Bureau of Reclamation, Phoenix Area Office

Prepared By(s): Salt River Project

Submitted To(s): National Park Service, Western Region

Record Identifiers

Historic American Engineering Record No.(s): AZ-17; AZ-30

SRP Library Barcode No.(s): 00030613

File Information

	Name	Size	Creation Date	Date Uploaded	Access
	1990_AndersenNoland_GrandCanalandCrosscutHydro.pdf	41.48mb		Dec 6, 2017 4:47:38 PM	Confidential
	This file is unredacted.