Blythe and the Palo Verde Valley

By Palo Verde Historical Museum and Society

Located midway between Los Angeles and Phoenix, the Palo Verde Valley enjoys year-round sunshine and mild winter temperatures. In the late 1800s, surveyor O. P. Callaway recognized the valley’s potential for flood irrigation from the Colorado River. He enlisted Thomas Blythe of San Francisco to finance the irrigation project. During the early 1900s, as more people settled in the valley, farming became the major industry as the extremes of a great river and a great desert merged into a flourishing greater produce garden. The Palo Verde Valley and its main settlement, Blythe (incorporated in 1916), grew into a thriving cohesive community loved by its year-round inhabitants as well as the “snowbirds” and river folks who come and go. The valley has over 40,000 acres of prime farmland and produces cotton, alfalfa, melons, lettuce, broccoli, onions, and many other fruits and vegetables. The Colorado River provides numerous opportunities for boating, skiing, and fishing.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Nov 9, 2005
• ISBN: 9781439614501

Palo Verde Historical Museum and Society

The Palo Verde Historical Museum and Society’s board of directors compiled this unique collection of vintage photographs. Founded in 1981, the museum continues to collect artifacts, pictures, and other memorabilia related to the history of the Palo Verde Valley. Its mission statement is “We give the past a future.”

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1910.

One

THE EARLY YEARS

PRIOR TO 1910

These American Indian desert drawings, estimated between 450 and 2,000 years old, are located just north of the Palo Verde Valley. According to Mohave and Queshan tribes of the lower Colorado River, the human figure represents Mastamho, the creator of earth and all life. The animal figure represents Hatakulya, one of two mountain lions/people who helped in the creation. There are many intaglios located in the desert that surrounds the valley. Most are best viewed from the air.

Although he only visited the Palo Verde Valley twice, Thomas H. Blythe, shown in this portrait, applied for and received the water rights for Colorado River water and financed the construction of the original irrigation system. Blythe passed away in 1883, which halted construction on the irrigation system. When his estate was settled in 1904, construction resumed.

In 1902, the first school in the Palo Verde Valley, Arrowweed School, was established. Located approximately 100 yards east of the Palo Verde Lagoon, it was constructed of cottonwood poles and arrowweed. The first teacher was Ellen Decker, who later became Mrs. Lyman F. Norton. Her memoirs were published by the Palo Verde Historical Museum and Society in a book titled Memoirs of a School