ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEWS Curtis W. BowserCURTISW..pdf · transcript is the National Archives and...

ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEWSCurtis W. Bowser

Ë Ë Ë Ë Ë Ë

STATUS OF INTERVIEWS:OPEN FOR RESEARCH

Ë Ë Ë Ë Ë Ë

Interviews Conducted and Edited–1999By Wm. Joe Simonds, Historian

Ë Ë Ë Ë Ë Ë

Interview Final Edited and DesktopPublished–2009

By Brit Allan Storey, Senior Historian

Oral History ProgramBureau of ReclamationDenver, Colorado

SUGGESTED CITATION:

Curtis W. Bowser. ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEW. Transcript of tape-recorded Bureau of Reclamation OralHistory Interviews conducted and edited by Wm. JoeSimonds, historian, in 1999, and desktop published by BritAllan Storey, senior historian, Bureau of Reclamation, in2009. Repository for the record copy of the interviewtranscript is the National Archives and RecordsAdministration in College Park, Maryland.

Record copies of this transcript are printed on 20 lb., 100%cotton, archival quality paper. All other copies are printed onnormal duplicating paper.

i

Oral history of Curtis W. Bowser

Table of Contents

Table of Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i

Statement of Donation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii

Oral History Interviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Raised on a Ranch South of Cheyenne, Wyoming 1Studied Agronomy, Botany, and Zoology at the

University of Wyoming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2Joined the Marine Corps and in 1945 Was Offered a

Job as a Vegetation Management Specialistwith the Bureau of Reclamation . . . . . . . . 3

Spent Entire Career with Reclamation in the RegionalOffice in Boulder City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Worked for Arleigh B. West in the Irrigation andRepayment Branch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Met the Head of the Ranger Force at Hoover Dam. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Boulder City in 1945 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6“There was no competition of the stores or anything

in town. . . .” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6Project Staff Resented Regional Staff . . . . . . . . . . 6Bought a House after a Few Years in an Apartment

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7House Was Built by a Contractor for Sale, Rather

than Being a Government House . . . . . . . . 8“It was kind of embarrassing for me to go and have to

kind of kowtow to somebody to get

ii

Bureau of Reclamation History Program

considered for a Federal house, so I justsaid–heck with it. . . .” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Felt A. B. West Gave Him a Lot of Leeway toDesign Vegetation Control Measures . . . 10

Eventually Headed the Lands Branch . . . . . . . . . 10Headed Water and Land Operations for a Time

Before Retirement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11“My early experience was primarily tidying up after

years of minimum maintenance during thewar, and cleaning cattails from drains inYuma. . . .” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

“There was also a plant known as water lettuce, wasin the Yuma main drain. Chemicals had notbeen developed . . .” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

“Finally, we got to where 2,4-D-type chemicals werecoming in, and one of the first things we didwas spray the cattail in the Coachella Canal,the unlined section of the Coachella Canal. . ..” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

“. . . the cotton plants down in Coachella were gettingdeformed, but other fields had very markedincreased yields. . . . that was the residualeffect of 2,4-D in the irrigation water. So itbecame apparent it was a dangerous thing todo. We had to quit using 2,4-D-typematerials in the cotton-growing areas. . . .”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Removing Trees from Canal Banks to Save Waterand Prepare for Lining Canals . . . . . . . . . 14

“There was some opposition. It was the mostbeautiful place you’ve ever seen. The early

iii


Mormons had planted these, row after rowafter row, every quarter of a mile . . .” . . . 15

“Chain saws were a dream that hadn’t materializedyet . . . cottonwoods, planted probably early1900s, four feet in diameter, sixty feet tall . . .They used hand labor and just sawed themdown and piled them in ricks. . . . four-, fivehundred feet long, fifteen-, twenty feet high,and then they would burn them. . . .” . . . . 16

“. . . we took a couple of men and we dug somecottonwood roots out, followed them,followed them, followed them. Some ofthose roots went out into the field fourhundred yards. (Laughter.) So it becameobvious that they had to go. . . .” . . . . . . . 16

Work on the Salt River Project Used Primarily YaquiIndian Laborers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

“. . . A. B. West . . . looked forward, into the future,better than any man I ever knew, and said,‘We have to control these phreatophytes’ . . .”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

The Salt Cedar Issue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18“. . . in moist areas like river bottoms, it spread

prolificly, and even in my short tenure of ten-,fifteen years, I could see it migrating. . . .”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Evergreen Tamarisk Is Different Than Salt Cedar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Department of the Interior Had a VegetationManagement Task Force to Deal withPhreatophytes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

iv


Region 5 and Phreatophyte Control . . . . . . . . . . . 20Studies to Determine How Much Water Salt Cedars

Actually Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21Moss in the Canals Was Another Issue . . . . . . . . 22Concerns about the Safety of 2,4-D . . . . . . . . . . . 23Weed Control on the All-American Canal . . . . . . 24Residential and Agricultural Trespass along the

Colorado River . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25Trespass Was Most Serious Between Parker Dam and

Parker, Arizona, along the Colorado on BothSides of the River . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

BLM Had to Complete Cadastral Surveys in Order toDeal with Trespass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Some People in Trespass Had Quit Claim Deeds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

“There’s no statute of limitation by occupancyagainst the Federal Government. . . .” . . . 27

Had to Go to Court for Judgements AgainstTrespassers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

“Those cases, then, broke the organized resistance. They had some political support. . . . TheSecretary then established the LowerColorado River Land Use Office in, I think,about 1961, and Reclamation then phaseditself out of the trespass problem. . . .” . . 30

The Issues of Avulsion and Accretion due to RiverMovements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

“We had to establish protection and security areasaround Hoover and Davis Dams, andNational Park Service was establishing the

v


Lake Mead National Recreation Area . . .”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Mining Claims as an Issue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34“. . . I don’t think A. B. West was in the office more

than ten minutes . . . ‘What’s this aboutmining claims?’ I said, very quietly, ‘I don’tknow,’ and I was instructed I’d better know,and he’d like a report tomorrow. Well, thatwas impossible, of course, but West was thatway. If he wanted something, he wanted ityesterday, and he would chide you about notbeing on top of it. Very, very efficient man. Hard. Some up and downs with him. . . .”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

“So I went down to Boulder Canyon Project and dugout the old . . . acquisition files . . . I thumbedthrough them and came to a funny littlenotation at the bottom of several of them, thatsaid, ‘This case not closed. Gone to war.’ . ..” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Sealing Hazardous Mine Shafts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38“. . . one of the prerequisites to get a job in Yuma

before the war was to join the NationalGuard. . . . It was also the same at LasCruces, New Mexico. When the war cameout, the National Guard was called up andvirtually decimated both towns. Lots of theYuma people came back, but I understandLas Cruces lost a disproportionate number. . ..” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

vi


“Once an elderly man came to my office to talk abouta gold vein he’d found near Hoover Dam . . .When I told him it was closed to prospecting,he was devastated. . . .” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Helped Find a Training Location for the Apollo 16Moon Vehicle and Subsequently MetAstronauts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Selling Small Tracts of Land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44Retired Land in the Wellton-Mohawk Division of the

Gila Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45Working with Creed George . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45“. . . they said, ‘Cut one of your two men,’ and I went

to them and said, ‘One of you has to go, andI’ll let you decide that between yourselves.’ About a week later, they came in, both ofthem came in and said, ‘We’re both leaving.’.. .” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Hired Stan Seigal to Fill His Vacancy on theCondition He Get a Higher Education . . . 48

“. . . I would have liked to have influenced thedevelopment of the east and west mesas . . .and Pilot Knob mesas in California, with . . .bubblers or drip systems. Would have beenthe greatest citrus-growing area in the UnitedStates. But we weren’t ready for that . . .”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Rather than Use Arizona’s Colorado River Allocationfor Developments down the River, it WasDetermined the Water Would Go to theCentral Arizona Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

vii


Impressed with the State Land Commissioner ofArizona, Bruce Babbitt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

A Ploy Once Used in Court on a Trespass Case by aCompany’s Representative . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Chief Justice William Rehnquist Once Represented aLarge Holding in the Yuma and NeedlesAreas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

“But that was more or less my approach, of justhitting it head on . . . no one seemed to payany attention to what I’d do. I just plowedahead at a reasonable course. . . .” . . . . . . 51

Robert Austin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52Experience with and Memories of Floyd Dominy

When in Grade School and While atReclamation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Arleigh B. West . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57“. . . we were all from the old school. ‘It’s a job. If

you want it, do it.’ The boss says ‘Jump,’you say, ‘How high?’ . . .” . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Pet Cemetery on Federal Land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59Likes to Buy and Sell Things . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62Transfer of Boulder City out of Federal Ownership

and Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66Gold Strike Inn Was an Inholding on Mining Claims

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68Railroad Pass and Klinger’s Garage . . . . . . . . . . 70Alcohol in Boulder City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73Boulder City Has a Growth Ordinance . . . . . . . . 74Environmental Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74Eminent Domain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

viii


Arrived in Boulder City as the Region Was beingEstablished . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Phreatophyte Control on the Salt River Project . . 79Mormon Pioneers Planted Cottonwood and Mulberry

Trees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79As Salt River Started Rehabilitation of its Canals it

Was Determined the Trees Had to Go toProtect Canal Lining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Kids Swam in the Canals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83Demonstrating the Extent of Tree Root Systems . 86“. . . the ditch bank vegetation. The basic theory, of

course, was that it’s a canal for irrigation, andwhen they become incompatible, then one hasto go. . . .” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Wanted to Understand Water Use and Transpirationby Phreatophytes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Cooperated with USGS on a Study of Salt CedarWater Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Dr. T. E. A. van Hylckama and Tommy RobinsonPublished the Results of the Salt Cedar Study. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Bowser Was Interested in the Academic Side of SaltCedar While in Region 5 (Amarillo) Theyconcentrated their efforts on Control . . . . 89

“. . . the time had come just to go the next step to aline[d] canal. . . .” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Maintenance Played a Part in the Decision to RemoveVegetation along the Canals . . . . . . . . . . 91

Using 2,4-D to Control Vegetation . . . . . . . . . . . 912,4-D Wasn’t Studied Much Before Marketing . . 92Issues with 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T as Herbicides . . . . 92

ix


Concern about the Environmental Consequences ofHerbicide Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Fishing in the Canals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95“I don’t recall ever seeing anybody fishing in a

smaller canal. They were always along themain canals . . .” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

“. . . regional director received a letter from theassistant United States attorney . . . said that,‘I talked to Mr. So-and-So, and he was non-cooperative and made certain veiled threats-like, and I would suggest that if CurtisBowser goes into that area to talk to him onthis subject, that he forewarn or ask the U.S.marshal to go along. . . .’” . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

There Was No Provision for Trespassers to Buy theLand Involved . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Trespass Removal on the Colorado River belowParker Dam Was Moved from Reclamationover to Bureau of Land Management Where itWas Directly Supervised by the Secretary ofthe Interior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

River Meandering, Evulsion and Accretion . . . 100The Two Classes of Trespass below Parker Dam

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102“My job at one time was to select five typical cases,

one residential, four agricultural, because allof the residentials did not total probably oneof the big farms . . .” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Sponsored a Cadastral Survey Because the TrespassCases Were Complicated by UnsurveyedAreas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

x


“No adverse possession against the United StatesGovernment. . . .” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Mining Claims and Reclamation . . . . . . . . . . . . 108Researching and Resolving Mining Claims on

Reclamation Land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109“‘These files not closed. Going to war.’” . . . . . 110Defining High Water Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111Protection and Security Zone at the Dams . . . . . 114Park Service Wanted a Smaller Protection and

Security Zone than Reclamation Developed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Issues Regarding Inholdings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117Property Rights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119Trespass Cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121BLM’s Land Use Office Handled the Trespass Cases

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122The Majority of the Residential Trespass Cases Were

on the Colorado River Between Parker andHead Gate Rock Dams–Primarily on theCalifornia Side of the River . . . . . . . . . . 124

The Many Trespass Cases below Parker DamApparently Stemmed from a Need forHousing During Construction of the Dam. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Reclamation and Los Angeles’s Department of Waterand Power Participated in Construction ofParker Dam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

xi


Statement of Donation

xii


xiii


Introduction

In 1988, Reclamation began to create a historyprogram. While headquartered in Denver, the historyprogram was developed as a bureau-wide program.

One component of Reclamation’s history program isits oral history activity. The primary objectives ofReclamation’s oral history activities are: preservation ofhistorical data not normally available through Reclamationrecords (supplementing already available data on the wholerange of Reclamation’s history); making the preserved dataavailable to researchers inside and outside Reclamation.

The senior historian of the Bureau of Reclamationdeveloped and directs the oral history program. Questions,comments, and suggestions may be addressed to the seniorhistorian.

Brit Allan StoreySenior Historian

Land Resources Office (84-53000)Office of Program and Policy ServicesBureau of ReclamationP. O. Box 25007Denver, Colorado 80225-0007(303) 445-2918FAX: (720) 544-0639E-mail: [email protected]

xiv


(INTENTIONALLY BLANK)

1


Oral History InterviewsCurtis W. Bowser

Simonds: It’s March 12, 1999, and we’re in Boulder Cityat the home of Mr. Curt Bowser. This is thebeginning of tape one.

Bowser: I’ve been to Denver with cattle many times, upto the stockyards. There was a café not farfrom the stockyards, with a bunch of wildanimal heads all over the walls.

Simonds: This was in the Denver area?

Bowser: I imagine it’s still there.

Simonds: The only thing that comes to mind like thatmight be the Buckhorn Exchange. This waswhen? About what time, what period?

Bowser: When were you born?

Simonds: I was born in ‘59. (Laughter.)

Bowser: (Laughter.) Maybe ‘35, ‘36, ‘37.

Raised on a Ranch South of Cheyenne, Wyoming

Simonds: I didn’t realize that the [Buckhorn] Exchangehad been there that long. So you grew up on aranch in Wyoming?

2


Bowser: Yes.

Simonds: Whereabouts in Wyoming?

Bowser: Just south of Cheyenne. The cows would goright straight, in a big truck, right straight downthrough Fort Collins, Greeley, Ault, Nunn, andon south, go to the stockyards and turn aroundand load if it was the right time of the year. Idon’t know where they’d come from. Afarmers’ exchange someplace, and we’d loadup with peaches and pears and plums and headback north. It was certainly interesting.

Simonds: So back to growing up in Wyoming. It was acattle ranch?

Studied Agronomy, Botany, and Zoology at theUniversity of Wyoming

Bowser: Yes. I was born on a cattle, multi-purposeranch about sixty-eight miles out of Cheyenne,and went to local schools there, the countryschool. Stayed there in that area until theschool board came and said, “We’d like toclose this school because he’s the onlyindividual that we have going to school, and itwould be cheaper for us just to send him off toHillsdale, and we’ll give you a little part of thefinancial offset.” There were five in the classthat I graduated from in Hillsdale, and then I

3


finished high school there and went to theUniversity of Wyoming, and graduated with adegree in agronomy, botany, and zoology.

Joined the Marine Corps and in 1945 Was Offereda Job as a Vegetation Management Specialist with

the Bureau of Reclamation

And joined the Marine Corps and left ranch lifeand the antelope forever.

I was discharged in September 1945and had several job opportunities here andthere. One was in West Africa, to study thetransportation or the introduction of rubber,Hevea braziliensis, into that area, because theUnited States did not want to have just onesupply of rubber.

The other job opportunity was going upto the Great Lakes area and studying theplacenta strength of peas. The placenta is whatholds the pea in the pod. In the shelling, youwould lose one pea or two peas, and if theycould increase that to virtually all the peas,they would increase their profit. But it was astatistical job, so I didn’t think that was for me.

I walked in the top floor of the InteriorBuilding and met a man by the name ofWilliam Palmer, who said, “We’ll give you a

4


job in any region that you want to go to as avegetation management specialist,” and thatwas agronomist, in a sense, but with emphasison plant control and suppression. I thought,Boulder City, Nevada, that’s not too far fromthe West Coast. My wife was in the Navy, aNavy nurse on the hospital ship Tranquility,and I knew she would come into the WestCoast port. So I came here and she arrived andwas discharged in Mare Island, and came herein January 1945. We’ve been here ever since.

Spent Entire Career with Reclamation in theRegional Office in Boulder City

Simonds: So then you spent most of your post-war lifewith Reclamation up until retirement?

Bowser: All of it. All of it.

Simonds: You came to Boulder City in ‘44-, ‘45?

Worked for Arleigh B. West in the Irrigation andRepayment Branch

Bowser: ‘45. January 5, 1945, and I was assigned to theIrrigation and Repayment Branch under A.

5

1. Note that in the text of these interviews, as opposed toheadings, information in parentheses, ( ), is actually on the tape. Information in brackets, [ ], has been added to the tape either by theeditor to clarify meaning or at the request of the interviewee in orderto correct, enlarge, or clarify the interview as it was originally spoken. Words have sometimes been struck out by editor or interviewee inorder to clarify meaning or eliminate repetition. In the case ofstrikeouts, that material has been printed at 50% density to aid inreading the interviews but assuring that the struckout material isreadable.

The transcriber and editor have removed some extraneous words suchas false starts and repetitions without indicating their removal. Themeaning of the interview has not been changed by this editing.


[Arleigh]1 B. West. He filled his staff out withClaude Nafsiger [phonetic], Charles Sweet[phonetic], and Tom Steele [phonetic], andNed Thompson [phonetic].

Met the Head of the Ranger Force at Hoover Dam

On my first day here, I had to stay inLas Vegas, and then met with the regionalpersonnel officer, Mitchell, the next day, andhe said, “Oh, you go down to the governmentdorm and see Mrs. Peterson.” She was thehouse mother. I went down to the dorm and Imet Mrs. Peterson. And here an enormous,large man came in, and he shook my hand andsaid, “Where you from, boy?” And I said,“I’m from Wyoming.” He said, “You been toRawlins?” I said, “I’ve been to Rawlins

6

2. Hoover Dam police officers were originally titled “ranger.”


hundreds of times,” and bragged a little bit bysaying out some names that I heard of but, ofcourse, I didn’t really know. (Laughter) And,he said, “I was on the state prison warden’sstaff there, and I brought lots of my men downhere to work on the ranger force.” We had aranger force in Boulder City or the HooverDam. And I could do no wrong with “ChiefPete” after that.2

Simonds: Tell me some about what Boulder City waslike in 1945.

Boulder City in 1945

Bowser: 1945, Boulder City was a typical town, butwith a very severe impact of the government. It was probably 95 percent Federal or projectemployees, mostly project employees.

“There was no competition of the stores oranything in town. . . .”

There was no competition of the stores oranything in town. They just had one store hereand one store there, and they pretty well set theprices.

Project Staff Resented Regional Staff

7


The project had some resentment, probably,toward the regional people coming in.

Simonds: That was just after the–

Bowser: After the war.

Simonds: After the beginning of the regional system.

Bowser: Yes, after the beginning, the start of theregional system. And they knew that they–well, they were getting old, also. They werejust not being replaced. They knew HooverDam would remain here forever, so there wasalways that element, and it was a veryimportant function, of course. I got intowrassles with some of the shop owners whenI’d say–my job entailed traveling to Yuma andPhoenix, and I could compare prices. Once Itold a hardware manager or owner, “Hell, I canbuy that down to Phoenix for–“ It was a pairof pinking shears for an anniversary orsomething for my wife. “I can get that for$2.98 down in Phoenix.” And he grabbed itout of my hand and slammed it down on theshelf and said, “You go to Phoenix and buy it,then.” (Laughter.)

Bought a House after a Few Years in anApartment

8


We lived in an apartment for a fewyears, then bought this house at 623 Avenue H,and we’ve lived here every since. I keeptelling my wife we should move, but she sayswe could live here forever, so we’re still here.

Simonds: Was this one of the houses that was built–

Bowser: No, this was not one of the houses that wasbuilt. There were several contracts of houseshere. The original houses, particularly thebrick houses, the bricks were brought in fromSalt Lake, those were the government projectemployees. In conjunction with that, therewere a few houses built by the Six Companygroups. I don’t remember which ones. Andthose more or less went into private ownership. They were up near the administration building.

Then during the war years, the BasicMagnesium complex was an important elementin the war effort, turning out titanium andmagnesium and so on and so forth, and theybuilt a few houses here in town. Those werelater then sold.

House Was Built by a Contractor for Sale, Ratherthan Being a Government House

Then there were a few contractors who builthouses, and this was one that had been built

9


by–I think he built three on this block. And thehousing, more or less, boom came, and morehouses were built, and then, of course, thegovernment, when it divested itself of BoulderCity, those houses were sold at a veryreasonable price, along with the houses a littlelater at Davis Dam. The employees, thegovernment employees, were givenpreferential treatment, and it wasargumentative whether the government got fairvalue. Probably not. But you have to look at itin its broadest aspect, that there was aminimum of disruption to the Boulder CanyonProject and to the regional office at the sametime.

Simonds: Who was in charge of Boulder City when youcame here in ‘45? A City Manager?

“It was kind of embarrassing for me to go andhave to kind of kowtow to somebody to get

considered for a Federal house, so I justsaid–heck with it. . . .”

Bowser: The chief clerk of Boulder Canyon Project, anelderly man, very fixed in his ways, was moreor less the kingpin. If you wanted a house, youwould have to go and–I believe his name wasAnderson. It was kind of embarrassing for meto go and have to kind of kowtow to somebody

10


to get considered for a Federal house, so I justsaid–heck with it.

Simonds: So, Sims Ely was–

Bowser: He had already gone. Then, of course, after thetown was–the government divested itself of itsinterest, a man by the name of Corbin, HalCorbin, came in and was very effective in thetransition from government to city. Of course,the regional director played an important rolein it, a man by the name of [E. A.] Moritz, andhis assistant, Douglas.

Felt A. B. West Gave Him a Lot of Leeway toDesign Vegetation Control Measures

And the early years with Reclamationhere were good. I had lots of leeway with A.B. West in developing the vegetation controlmeasures on the irrigation projects.

Eventually Headed the Lands Branch

As I learned, I assumed more responsibilities inland, took over the Lands Branch. I liked thatwork because it was mid-management. I thenstayed in land as compared to the water phaseof the operations.

11


Headed Water and Land Operations for a TimeBefore Retirement

I assumed the job of Regional Supervisor ofWater and Land Operations just before I retiredin 1982, and never looked back. In fact, this isthe first time I’ve even thought about the past. I’m not much to take pictures or think ofthings.

Simonds: When you say vegetation control–

Bowser: Yes, I’ll get into that.

Simonds: –is that essentially weed control?

Bowser: Yes, essentially weed control. The regionaldirectors were a good group of people, as arule. There were some outstanding ones, ofcourse. The project manager, Yuma ProjectOffice, Boulder Canyon Project, was verycompetent. Of course, we had Moritz, [J. P.]Jones, [W. H.] Taylor, West, and [Edward A.]Lundberg and many more after that. And mostwere engineers and they were glad that theydidn’t have to directly supervise a lowlyposition like weed control. So I just went mymerry way, more or less, and didn’t pay muchattention until I got into trouble, and then theyknew who I was at times.

12


“My early experience was primarily tidying upafter years of minimum maintenance during the

war, and cleaning cattails from drains in Yuma. . ..”

My early experience was primarilytidying up after years of minimum maintenanceduring the war, and cleaning cattails fromdrains in Yuma. They were big fellas; theywere eight-, ten-, twelve feet in height.

“There was also a plant known as water lettuce,was in the Yuma main drain. Chemicals had not

been developed . . .”

There was also a plant known as water lettuce,was in the Yuma main drain. Chemicals hadnot been developed, and there was a lot ofwork starting on them, but they were notgenerally available. So we cleaned the cattailout by dragging heavy chain and hand labor. And the water lettuce, that’s a plant that growson the surface of the water, with rootsextending into the water and possibly attachingto the soil, but not a fixed plant per se. We puta bunch of men, two in a boat, and had them godown and just physically pluck them out andthrow them up on the bank.

Now, when I’m talking about plantsuppression, plant control, weed control, don’t

13


misunderstand me. I didn’t dream up thesetechniques. I would simply go down toImperial Irrigation District, which was veryprogressive. It was the largest irrigationdistrict in possibly the world, certainly in theUnited States. Under Superintendent Hartzog[phonetic] and his right-hand man OscarFudge, they attracted a lot of attention becauseof their size, and people would come and say,“Oh, you should try this product,” or, “We’llgive you a thousand gallons of this and that.” And then I would be a kind of a rovingembassy, emissary. I would go around to theother irrigation projects and more or less tellthem what they were doing. I was greeted withopen arms, because it was a big project for theday.

“Finally, we got to where 2,4-D-type chemicalswere coming in, and one of the first things we didwas spray the cattail in the Coachella Canal, the

unlined section of the Coachella Canal. . . .”

Finally, we got to where 2,4-D-typechemicals were coming in, and one of the firstthings we did was spray the cattail in theCoachella Canal, the unlined section of theCoachella Canal. I particularly enjoyed thatbecause I got to ride–we did it with helicopter,and I particularly enjoyed flying fifty-, sixtymiles an hour in the helicopter with no

14


cowling, and the wheels of the helicopterhitting the top of the plants.

“. . . the cotton plants down in Coachella weregetting deformed, but other fields had very

marked increased yields. . . . that was the residualeffect of 2,4-D in the irrigation water. So it

became apparent it was a dangerous thing to do. We had to quit using 2,4-D-type materials in the

cotton-growing areas. . . .”

Of course, a little later in that, thecotton plants down in Coachella were gettingdeformed, but other fields had very markedincreased yields. No study was ever made ofit, and nobody knew that that was the residualeffect of 2,4-D in the irrigation water. So itbecame apparent it was a dangerous thing todo. We had to quit using 2,4-D-type materialsin the cotton-growing areas.

Simonds: Did it only seem to have an effect on the cottonplant?

Removing Trees from Canal Banks to Save Waterand Prepare for Lining Canals

Bowser: No, it would impact any broad-leaf plant, butcotton was super sensitive to it. And thenremoval of trees from the canal banks, in SaltRiver Project particularly. A. B. West wasworking on a rehab and development program

15


and it was obvious that the water loss fromboth plant evapotranspiration and seepage inmile after mile after mile of unlined canals inthe Salt River Project was not the best thing tohave. In addition to that, the trees, if you letthem remain, would push up through therelatively thin gunite lining in a matter of ayear. So they said, “Let us start taking themout,” and I would go down there and I wouldtalk with staff members at my level.

“There was some opposition. It was the mostbeautiful place you’ve ever seen. The early

Mormons had planted these, row after row afterrow, every quarter of a mile . . .”

A man by the name of–I forgot hisname–said, “We’ve got to do it.” There wassome opposition. It was the most beautifulplace you’ve ever seen. The early Mormonshad planted these, row after row after row,every quarter of a mile for, oh, I don’t knowhow many thousand acres there were, lateralsthat served farmlands.

“Chain saws were a dream that hadn’tmaterialized yet . . . cottonwoods, planted

probably early 1900s, four feet in diameter, sixtyfeet tall . . . They used hand labor and just sawedthem down and piled them in ricks. . . . four-, five

16


hundred feet long, fifteen-, twenty feet high, andthen they would burn them. . . .”

Chain saws were a dream that hadn’tmaterialized yet, but, like I said, sometimesthese trees–talking about cottonwoods, plantedprobably early 1900s, four feet in diameter,sixty feet tall, probably, branches that wentclear out and met over the country roads. Theyused hand labor and just sawed them down andpiled them in ricks. Sometimes the rickswould be four-, five hundred feet long, fifteen-,twenty feet high, and then they would burnthem.

“. . . we took a couple of men and we dug somecottonwood roots out, followed them, followedthem, followed them. Some of those roots went

out into the field four hundred yards. (Laughter.) So it became obvious that they had to go. . . .”

I broke the opposition by [using] a manby the name of Dr. Pabloshenko [phonetic],who came out and said, “Why don’t you gointo the fields and follow the roots, see how farthey go.” So we took a couple of men and wedug some cottonwood roots out, followedthem, followed them, followed them. Some ofthose roots went out into the field four hundredyards. (Laughter.) So it became obvious thatthey had to go. And it looked barren and the

17


wind blew more after the trees were down, butthat’s progress.

Work on the Salt River Project Used PrimarilyYaqui Indian Laborers

A. B. West continued with hisrehabilitation program, and the project is stillfunctioning today. The project primarily usedwhat was called Yaqui Indians. They werepeople who were neither [citizens] in Mexicoor the United States when we purchased theArizona lands, when the Federal Governmentdid. Of course, as soon as their children wereborn, they were citizens of the United States,and the older folks, which I’ve met a few, theywere hard-working men.

“. . . A. B. West . . . looked forward, into the future,better than any man I ever knew, and said, ‘We

have to control these phreatophytes’ . . .”

Then I was assigned to also the–A. B.West, who was very far-sighted, was beginningto think about water salvage and someday thatwe were going to run out of water. He lookedforward, into the future, better than any man Iever knew, and said, “We have to control thesephreatophytes,” and that’s a broad term. Phreatophyte is just a general term that wasused.

18


The Salt Cedar Issue

The primary culprit, of course, was salt cedar. Salt cedar had been probably introduced–oh, Ichased its origin back in the United States. Iwas limited; I couldn’t read Spanish the best. And down in Texas and Louisiana, some of theCatholic parishes reported a plant that wasalready established and it seemed like it couldhave been or was salt cedar, so leading me [tothink] that maybe even some of the earlierpeople had brought in salt cedar from theMiddle East. Maybe the conquistadors hadsome effect on it–that I do now know.

But it was gaining rapidly and it wouldvirtually crowd out anything else by its shadeand the root system that would just take up ourlimited moisture.

“. . . in moist areas like river bottoms, it spreadprolificly, and even in my short tenure of ten-,

fifteen years, I could see it migrating. . . .”

Of course, in moist areas like river bottoms, itspread prolifically, and even in my short tenureof ten-, fifteen years, I could see it migrating. Not only migrating, it was rushing. There wereprobably two species involved. One wasTamarix pantandra and the other was Tamarixgallica, but it was academic which one it is.

19


Evergreen Tamarisk Is Different Than Salt Cedar

You shouldn’t confuse the salt cedar with the evergreentamarisk, which is a the [Tamarix] athel. It wasintroduced by a man by the name of Dr.Trudeau–Trodeau? Somebody, from the University ofArizona, about 1905, and was taken to Coachella and wasplanted widely there.

Simonds: Why was it introduced there?

Bowser: Shade and salt-tolerant and possibly even moresalt-tolerant than salt cedar. It was about theonly thing that they had, and they planted lotsof it. It did not reproduce with seed, so you[unclear] cutting out. So they had it controlled. There was no problem with that.

Simonds: This was set up for shade?

Department of the Interior Had a VegetationManagement Task Force to Deal with

Phreatophytes

Bowser: Yes, the early date farmers set it up for shadeand windbreak in the Coachella area, and somein the–all over the Southwest. Of course,evapotranspiration was a big thing. How muchwater do these salt cedar and otherphreatophytes use to grow and exhaust into theatmosphere? And they established a vegetation

20


management task force in the department, ingovernment agencies, and that was trying tocoordinate every aspect of phreatophytecontrol.

We had about 150,000 acres later,mapping indicated, of salt cedar and mixedphreatophytes in Arizona, and many, manytimes more than that in New Mexico andTexas. The refuge manager, a man by thename of Berkeley, in New Mexico, a wildliferefuge, did more work than anybody else inchaining them down, burning the residue,plowing, discing, everything. And then, ofcourse, we all worked together on developmentof new products with chemical companies–Dow Chemical and others, these productscalled 2,4-D, 2,4,5-T, and so forth.

Region 5 and Phreatophyte Control

The best record of salt cedar, orphreatophyte, control would be found inRegion Five. I was a member of thephreatophyte task force, and West gave me alot of leeway and funded me, and we set upcooperative studies with the University ofArizona and had several fellowships that youngbotanists and entomologists would study theeffect of insects on salt cedar and were thereany pathogens that would attack the plant. It

21


was academic, but it could not be overlooked. I think maybe somebody in later years, in thelast ten years, may have found some organismin the Middle East that would attack–that’s theoriginal home of salt cedar–that would slow ita little bit, but it’s passé. It wouldn’t be of anypractical value, I think, today. It would requirefurther study, anyway.

Studies to Determine How Much Water SaltCedars Actually Use

Then, of course, there was always thisproblem of, let’s determine how much water asalt cedar plant actually used. So incooperation with [U.S.] Geological Survey,down near Waterman Wash near Buckeye,Arizona, we built four lysimeters. They wereforty feet square, ten feet deep, and they werelined with polyvinylchloride, with controlledwater inlet, and then we could measure theamount of water that they used. The man whoran that was T. E. A. van Hylckama fromGeological Survey, with Tommy Robinson,also GS, and I think there were seven moretanks established at a later date to study thewater use by phreatophytes using differentsalinity water, water of different salinities. Theresults of these studies, of course, werepublished as USGS water supply papers.

22


Moss in the Canals Was Another Issue

Of course, moss in the canals,potamogeton-type growth, was very prevalentall through the Southwest, and had excellentwarm water, lots of sunlight, and it just grewprolifically, as it does in all Southern states. Of course, there was the usual techniques ofdrying canals out and letting the moss just bakein the sun, chaining, and some chemical, butwith the lining and the better maintenance,there’s no big problem except from the elementof it. You interrupt the food chain and theorganisms that depend on it, including fish,have to suffer. But it’s one of those things, it’sfish or farming, and farming seemed to bemore practical.

Simonds: You mentioned that they discontinued orreduced the use of 2,4-D type [unclear]because of the effects it had on the cotton?

Bowser: Not necessarily. As people began tounderstand its use better, you could minimizethe possibility of damage by not spraying in thewind, by not putting it in the water, directing iton the plant itself rather than spraying itwholesale. And it’s still used, although it isrestricted in use to qualified operators now.

Simonds: Was there any concern about the–

23


END SIDE 1, TAPE 1. MARCH 12, 1999.BEGIN SIDE 2, TAPE 1. MARCH 12, 1999.

Concerns about the Safety of 2,4-D

Bowser: That was always of concern, and I think therewas a demonstration once at one of theconferences or a meeting of some type in theEast Coast, where a man took a glass of waterand poured X amount of 2,4-D in it and drankit right there in front of the people, and thatdramatically reduced any thoughts that it washarmful. As far as I know, yes, some peopledeveloped a rash to it. They may havedeveloped a rash to other things, too, and wejust wouldn’t assign those people to the weedsprayers.

Simonds: Was there any concern about potential harm tofish or wildlife or environmentalconsequences?

Bowser: No. We kind of had to always separateourselves from those concerns, because theirrigation was primary. Although we tried ourdarnedest to cooperate with them and at onetime we considered even bringing in Tilapia,another large-type plant-eating animal thatwould–I forgot its name now. But those posedproblems in what do you do with them when

24


we dry the canals in the wintertime, so on andso forth. So it never really got off the ground.

Weed Control on the All-American Canal

The biggest challenge, of course, wastaking the vegetation from the All-AmericanCanal from Imperial Dam down to where itdiverted into the Imperial Irrigation District. That’s the largest canal in the country untilthey may have built some larger ones up inDelta-Mendota area. It’s 144,100 cfs, I think,and it’s big, and we couldn’t reach the plants,the weeds down near the waterline, so theengineers put the weed spray and/or weed-burning equipment on what’s called ducks,amphibious trucks, and we sprayed from thewater’s edge.

Simonds: You’d actually get right out on the water?

Bowser: Oh, yes, it was a big truck, a two-and-a-half-ton truck. It was an amphibious truck, is whatit was, and we put probably a thousand, twothousand gallons of material in the tanks, builtinto the truck, and just had built ramps anddrove in and sprayed down, then drove out. Itwas quite an operation.

I spent a little time studying theviability of salt cedar seeds and how many

25


seeds there are per plant. It was mind-boggling, so I did that on my own, more orless. It was a futile job. And along with theweed control, or the plant problems along thecanals was diminishing, of course, just bybetter maintenance. I took more control andresponsibility in the field of land use, which Iwas primarily interested [in] anyway, and Ispent virtually the last twenty years full timeon that.

Residential and Agricultural Trespass along theColorado River

One, of course, was the illegal use ofland along the Colorado River. That wasperhaps the worst in the United States. Andthe squatters occupied many sites. There wasagricultural land. There was a relatively fewcommercial sites. A special consultant, or aspecial assistant to the Secretary of the Interior,called Theodore Stevens, now senator from thestate of Alaska, came out several times andsaid, “We have to clean this up.”

Trespass Was Most Serious Between Parker Damand Parker, Arizona, along the Colorado on Both

Sides of the River

So the job fell on me, or I took it, Iguess, and the problem was most serious below

26


Parker Dam to Parker, Arizona, and thenfarmland in the Palo Verde Valley, the lowerend of the Palo Verde Valley, and in Cibola,and at Yuma, and in Arizona below the bridgecrossing at Blythe.

BLM Had to Complete Cadastral Surveys in Orderto Deal with Trespass

We were handicapped to some extentthat these people had been there for years. Allthe land had not been surveyed, and the riverhad swung back and forth through the years. So first thing that had to be done was had toget BLM in to make the cadastral surveys,which they did over a several-year period. Ofcourse, as I said, some of these people hadstayed there, lived there many years, and someeven were the original people who had workedat Parker Dam. There were no facilities atParker for workmen, and the constructionengineer allegedly just said, “Go out along theriver and do what you have to do.” (Laughter.) He didn’t encourage it, nor did he discourageit, and his job was to get the dam built, and thatwas the objective. And then these folks stayedon.

Some People in Trespass Had Quit Claim Deeds

27


Of course, they had what they called aquit claim deed, and they would transfer thatquit claim deed to their children or to the nextbuyer when they moved on, and he got tothinking, or they got to thinking, “That appliesto land, too. I have a right to the land.” Well,a quit claim deed doesn’t mean anything; it justdeeds any right and interest you may have. And we never objected to their buildings; itwas just their land that they couldn’t transfer.

Simonds: These were public lands?

Bowser: Oh, yes, public, withdrawn Federal lands.

Simonds: So then the laws that might allow them to–

Bowser: Nonexistent.

Simonds: –acquire private lands through adversepossession don’t apply.

“There’s no statute of limitation by occupancyagainst the Federal Government. . . .”

Bowser: No, do not apply. There’s no statute oflimitation by occupancy against the FederalGovernment. So the department then said,“Pick out some test cases and we will startaction against them.”

28


Had to Go to Court for Judgements AgainstTrespassers

So I worked very closely then, ofcourse, with the regional solicitor’s office and,in turn, with the U.S. attorney’s offices both inArizona and California. We picked out a–Iwon’t mention the names, because that’s passé. One was a farmer below Yuma, one in CibolaValley, and one below agricultural land inBlythe, and then a residential one in the Parkerstrip. We went to court and got judgments onall of them.

The residential case was a heartbreak. It was an elderly man and woman had livedthere for years, had a quit claim deed, as wediscussed, and the woman worried, “If we wereevicted, who would feed my quail?” And thequail were just like chickens in her yard. I hadsympathy for her, but that’s about as far as itcould go. And we went to court in LosAngeles, and the family came in. Theseattorneys that you hire, you know, they’reclever. If you go to court, hire a cleverattorney, because he’s got it in his hands, bothways. (Laughter.) The trespass family camein, a man in bib overalls and a woman in acalico dress, and one son in civilian clothes andthe other in Marine blues. They listened. These were not trial by jury; these were judge

29


only. The judge, in two days or so, ruled that“I have heartfelt sympathy” and so on and soforth, he may even have had tears in his eyes, Icouldn’t tell, and then he said, “But I have nochoice but to rule for the government. Youhave no right to the land.”

And, of course, the agricultural trespassbelow Blythe were also clear-cut as far as thegovernment was concerned, and we went tocourt. Their attorney was pretty good. It was ayounger man, and he argued valiantly about therights of his clients. There were two brothers. Toward the end of the trial, the judge askedone of the brothers on the stand, he said, “Whydid you occupy the Federal land, and why didyou then resist when they served notice on youto vacate?” And the man looked up and hesaid, “I guess I just didn’t care.” And theopposition just folded right at that moment.

Simonds: I can imagine these proceedings made youguys pretty unpopular around there.

Bowser: Yes, and I’ll get into that. Previously, thesetwo brothers’ mother had said to me, “Mr.Bowser, during these weeks of trial, I havelooked at you, smiled, and said hello, and triedto get acquainted. You ignored me.” I’m akind of brusque individual. Without thinkingor consideration, I said–I paraphrased a little

30


bit here. I said, “The path of the trespasser(rather than the transgressor) is frequentlyrocky,” and I walked away. I didn’t havestomach to look at her after the verdict wasrendered. I fled. (Laughter.) I also kind ofmentioned to her that I could not let thepersonal problems interfere with the job, and Icouldn’t take them home with me at night. You can’t. I mean, you have to wear two hats. Sometimes I wore three hats.

“Those cases, then, broke the organizedresistance. They had some political support. . . .

The Secretary then established the LowerColorado River Land Use Office in, I think, about1961, and Reclamation then phased itself out of

the trespass problem. . . .”

Those cases, then, broke the organizedresistance. They had some political support. But the lower Colorado River land use, it wasgetting too big for Reclamation, too big for me,and it wasn’t Reclamation’s role, really, to bedoing this. I guess Reclamation was probablyresponsible for it by not taking action, but itwas getting pretty political. The Secretary thenestablished the Lower Colorado River LandUse Office in, I think, about 1961, andReclamation then phased itself out of thetrespass problem.

31


The Issues of Avulsion and Accretion due to RiverMovements

There was also another element comingin here. Some people were contesting that,“We have a right to this land by what’s calledavulsion and accretion of the rivermovements,” and that brought in a–in otherwords, there was a no-man area. So with theLand Use Office and Reclamation, they made avery, very comprehensive study of the rivermovements from aerial photographs and mapsand things that we had fairly good record of,and brought in new cats, engineers like JohnMcCuen [phonetic], Reclamation, and JimSimpson of BLM, and they did the testifyingthen of saying that this is the way the riverwas, so on and so forth.

Then the attorneys then settled the caseson compromise, and we established thenownerships and recognized them in staterecords and taxes and everything. Some ofthese people, you know, had paid taxes inArizona and California, just state tax, or localproperty taxes, which they thought gave them aright, too. But the state government will takemoney if you go and offer it to them. (Laughter.) I think a person could still go talkto Mr. Simpson. He became really certainly

32


the United States’ expert on accretion andavulsion, and he’s still alive.

Simonds: In those cases where you get accretion andavulsion as the river meanders, was a fixedboundary point ever established, or was it stillrun of the river, basically?

Bowser: Yes, the cadastral surveys performed by BLMestablished–brought it down as far as theycould, and then by these court actions andadjudication of claims, they established–andthe state line. Of course, at the same time wewere dredging the river, so we had a fixedpoint of where Arizona-California intersect.

“We had to establish protection and securityareas around Hoover and Davis Dams, and

National Park Service was establishing the LakeMead National Recreation Area . . .”

Along with this work, I did quite a littleactivity. It seems like it’s all “I,” though, but Iguess maybe that’s what your career is. Wehad to establish protection and security areasaround Hoover and Davis Dams, and NationalPark Service was establishing the Lake Mead

33

3. Lake Mead National Recreation Area was formally created in1964, primarily for recreational purposes, by “An act to provide anadequate basis for administration of the Lake Mead NationalRecreation Area, Arizona and Nevada, and for other purposes” (Act ofOctober 8, 1964, Public Law 88-639, 78 Stat. 1039).

Formerly the Boulder Dam Recreation Area existed de facto,if not in formal congressional authorization, as a result of the NationalPark Service’s desire to establish national recreation areas and theBureau of Reclamation’s desire to not have to manage recreation at itsfacilities. Several attempts to enact legislation formally establishingthe recreation area failed. Then, in 1936, using existing authorities,the two bureaus developed a joint memorandum of agreementdividing up territory and responsibilities at Lake Mead. In spite of theunofficial status of the recreation area, Congress appropriated to thePark Service $10,000 in 1936 for planning for recreation at LakeMead, and subsequently Congress appropriated large sums fordevelopment of facilities. Between 1945 and 1965 the Park Serviceand Reclamation used joint memoranda of agreement to establish nineadditional national recreation areas.

For additional information see: Douglas W. Dodd, “BoulderDam Recreation Area: The Bureau of Reclamation, the National ParkService, and the Origins of the National Recreation Area Concept atLake Mead, 1929-1936," in The Bureau of Reclamation: HistoryEssays from the Centennial Symposium, volume 2, (Bureau ofReclamation and the Government Printing Office: Denver, Colorado,2008), pp. 467-94.


National Recreation Area3 in 1968 and wantedto get as close to the water as possible. I don’tblame them. They were running the recreationand had a very difficult time. Reclamationwanted a barrier back from highwater line,and, of course, they wanted to crowd up asclose to the water as they could. We used thephrase that you would take a long staff and put

34


it in at high waterline and then you’d go up ontop of the bluff and go back four hundred feet,so you’d have four hundred feet for thewaterline, regardless where it was in relation tothe bluff or anything. And they felt sometimesour protection and security zones were a littleexcessive, but it’s what the engineers wanted,and everyone more or less concurred.

The superintendent here with NationalPark Service was a man by the name of Ritchie[phonetic], a very dynamic man. He called mejust before he went into a hearing on his bill tocreate the recreation area and ask if anycompromise was possible on it, and I told himno. I didn’t check on it, but they supported me,so I don’t know who else he called. I neverheard from him again.

Mining Claims as an Issue

And had many special problems. StanSeigel said his first job with me was diggingout information on a widow claiming a miningclaim in the vicinity of Parker Dam. He wroteme a letter here not long ago on that. Well, Ihad forgotten it, more or less. I had met thiswoman and her brother-in-law, they weredriving a big white Cadillac, and I was veryimpressed. They were out of the L.A. area. She came once into D.C., and then I met with

35


her and her attorney in L.A., but we couldn’tfind any evidence of any valid claim. I hadused the experiences I had gained in the LakeMead National Recreation Area on miningclaims, and her attorney just advised her not topursue it further. Poor old girl. I alwaysthought her late husband had something andthe government denied her that right. But itwas very marginal, even.

If a mining claim is not perfected, youare obligated to make certain assessments on ayearly basis for a number of years to keep itvalid and then prove up or leave it go, and ifthey do not do that, they find them–I think theycall it–it just has not proved up, ab initio, Ithink is the legal term they use on that.

“. . . I don’t think A. B. West was in the office morethan ten minutes . . . ‘What’s this about mining

claims?’ I said, very quietly, ‘I don’t know,’ and Iwas instructed I’d better know, and he’d like areport tomorrow. Well, that was impossible, of

course, but West was that way. If he wantedsomething, he wanted it yesterday, and he wouldchide you about not being on top of it. Very, very

efficient man. Hard. Some up and downs withhim. . . .”

A. B. West went to a Rotary meeting inLas Vegas once, and Jim Cashman, the

36


Cadillac dealer in Vegas, cornered him, saidhe, Cashman, was going to develop a miningclaim down in Lake Mojave area, and A. B.West listened, and I don’t think A. B. Westwas in the office more than ten minutes thanCurt Bowser was in the office with him, and hesaid, “What’s this about mining claims?” Isaid, very quietly, “I don’t know,” and I wasinstructed I’d better know, and he’d like areport tomorrow. Well, that was impossible, ofcourse, but West was that way. If he wantedsomething, he wanted it yesterday, and hewould chide you about not being on top of it. Very, very efficient man. Hard. Some up anddowns with him. (Laughter.)

“So I went down to Boulder Canyon Project anddug out the old . . . acquisition files . . . I thumbedthrough them and came to a funny little notationat the bottom of several of them, that said, ‘This

case not closed. Gone to war.’ . . .”

So I went down to Boulder CanyonProject and dug out the old files. Files losethemselves quickly in government offices. They go to archives or they get behindsomething or they’re thrown out. But they hadthem there, and I reviewed the land files, theacquisition files, and I found several. I thinkthere were seven or eight. I thumbed throughthem and came to a funny little notation at the

37


bottom of several of them, that said, “This casenot closed. Gone to war.” Signed–I forgot hisfirst name–Williams. And there they were. (Laughter.) A comprehensive record of whatwas not finished.

Simonds: [unclear] war.

Bowser: “What’s this?” (Laughter.) So I went to Renoand talked to BLM. They said, “Get proof thatthey were not being worked.” Well, some ofthem were very obvious they weren’t beingworked; they were underneath the lake. Andsome that were on the shore were not beingworked. So I went around and I talked to–Igot, in a sense, deposition, but not a sworndeposition, from old-timers here. I enjoyedtalking to them. One was a barber here, andhe’d lived here all his life. He also was aconstable, I think, once. Then the chief guide,Schwartz [phonetic], that had lived herevirtually a lifetime. They were interested in–the Schwartzes, on their off time, wereinterested in mining. I’d go out and meet withthe two brothers and they’d talk. I’d give themthe man’s name, and, “Ho, ho, ho, you won’tfind him. He’s been dead now for twenty-twoyears.” (Laughter.) So we squeezed them outpretty easy and never heard anything morefrom Cashman. And we did that in DavisDam, too.

38


I had a little rhubarb from one of thetrespassers in Nevada, he’s very prominentfamily, and they had used the Federal lands forseveral generations. I told him that a littleblack boy in Harlem had as much right as hehad to that land. He looked mad, and I left. (Laughter.)

Then had another set-to while in Yuma. I met with a Yuma employee–

Simonds: A Reclamation employee?

Sealing Hazardous Mine Shafts

Bowser: A Reclamation employee. A. B. West heard ofa motorcycle rider on the Mojave Desert ridinginto an open mining shaft, and he asked me ifthere were any hazards like this onReclamation withdrawn land. I said probablyso. I knew of a few. And the directive wasblunt: “Get rid of them.” And I said, “I’ll needsome equipment.” Under my breath I thought,“Is that rascal thinking I’m going to go downand seal some of these shafts with a shovel inmy free time?” So when I said, “I needequipment,” he grabbed the phone and called, Ithink, Project Manager Steinbergen [phonetic],or maybe Project Manager Miller at the time,and said, “The Yuma Project Office is to send

39


equipment out at Bowser’s request, and norecord or no work orders.”

I coordinated with the heavy-dutyequipment boss, and I called him on quite afew occasions. “I’ll need a Cat at so and sopoint below Needles,” or Blythe, wherever itwas. One of the first several times we’d justfill these shafts in. I arrived at the designatedtime and the Cat driver, a man, was there, anda trailer and a Caterpillar. This old Caterpillarwas on the ground. So I chitchatted with thisman for a couple of minutes. He was verysmall in stature, maybe not much over–he’dstretch to be five feet tall, and this was a bigCat, probably a D-7. I was getting a little–“Let’s get the job done,” and I said, “I wishthat–deleted–Cat driver would get here so wecould get this job done.” Well, when I lookedup, he was way above the Cat, although to geton the Cat he had to climb up on the cleats likea kid going up a ladder. (Laughter.) And hesaid he was the Cat driver. I apologized. Hisname was Tanner. He jumped pretty high andhis face was as red as mine. When he cooleddown, he filled in the shaft, and over the nextseveral years we filled in quite a few more. But he was never really–I always stayedbehind or at the side of the Cat. I never got infront of the Cat. (Laughter.)

40


And he was a very interesting man,though, for his size, his stature. He had servedin North Africa with the Tank Corps and wascommended by the Department of Interior forhauling hay to ranchers in northern Nevadaafter a heavy snowstorm one year. Yuma hadsent trucks and heavy equipment up there toassist the ranchers as a goodwill gesture.

Simonds: His name was Tanner?

Bowser: Tanner. He’s probably long–he would be alittle older than me, so he’s probably deceased.

“. . . one of the prerequisites to get a job in Yumabefore the war was to join the National Guard. . . .It was also the same at Las Cruces, New Mexico. When the war came out, the National Guard wascalled up and virtually decimated both towns.

Lots of the Yuma people came back, but Iunderstand Las Cruces lost a disproportionate

number. . . .”

Yuma had a very–one of theprerequisites to get a job in Yuma before thewar was to join the National Guard. Myunderstanding is, you had a job application andsign up for the National Guard, and they didn’tput one on top of the other, but it was nice tohave them both signed. Most people signed. Itwas also the same [at] as Las Cruces, New

41


Mexico. When the war came out, the NationalGuard was called up and virtually decimatedboth towns. Lots of the Yuma people cameback, but I understand Las Cruces lost adisproportionate number. But Tanner was aremarkable man.

These are just incidents that come tomind. Are we running over time?

Simonds: No, we’re fine.

“Once an elderly man came to my office to talkabout a gold vein he’d found near Hoover Dam . . .When I told him it was closed to prospecting, he

was devastated. . . .”

Bowser: Once an elderly man came to my office to talkabout a gold vein he’d found near Hoover Damwhen he’d worked there in the thirties andforties. It was closed to prospecting. When Itold him it was closed to prospecting, he wasdevastated. Of course, I’d always heardrumors that there was gold present above whatis now known as Gold Strike Inn downbetween here and the dam, but he wouldn’tdivulge the location of this site to me, althoughI felt that he was competent enough and couldremember well enough that he would know thevalley it was in and the hill. But I guess hedidn’t have a trust then of government

42


employees, so I don’t know why I needed toknow anyway, but he wouldn’t tell me. Heleft, and I never heard from him.

Helped Find a Training Location for the Apollo 16Moon Vehicle and Subsequently Met Astronauts

In January 1972 a man had checked inwith Regional Director Lundberg, andLundberg shuttled him off to me. Lundbergcalled me and said, “This is not to bediscussed.” I said, “Okay,” and here come anondescript man, like me, in, and said, “I’d likeyou to help me locate an area for the Apollo 16moon vehicle training.” So I agreed to help,and I picked out areas that would be isolated orsuitable, whatever they thought, and theypicked out one west of Dry Lake. I neverthought anything more about it. I went outwith him a couple of hours on a couple of days,and said, “You don’t have to check withanybody, but refer them to this office in caseyou run into somebody who’s sayingsomething to you.”

And all of a sudden, one day there wasnothing in the papers, all of a sudden the phonerang and it was–I don’t remember if it was theman I’d originally met with or somebody, andhe said, “Would you like to meet theastronauts?” I said, “Why, sure.”

43



Simonds: [This is tape two of an interview with] CurtBowser, on March 12th, 1999.

Bowser: ...in on it. I thought it would be only properthat I call him and ask him if he shouldparticipate. He was absent, and in his stead,acting, was Byron Miller, and Miller said, sure,he’d like to go.

So on the designated next day, I’ll say,the next day we drove down, went to thedesignated area, and nobody came. Ten,fifteen minutes went by. Miller’s kind of a–he’s getting antsy and kind of quizzing mewhat it was, and he was kind of irritated that hedidn’t know about it. Well, pretty soon herecame a convoy of cars, and he brightened rightup. We went up with the bigwigs to the actualsite and met the astronauts. I always look backat going up there was an ordinary little Jeep,men in it in their astronaut uniforms, and theywaved and everything. Then we went up andwe met the real astronauts. I was veryimpressed with them. They were, “We’ve gotto get on our plane at so and so. I’m going thisway and he’s going that way and this way.” They were going to meet in Houston

44


tomorrow. It was just zoom, zoom, zoom,zoom.

I got a nice letter then from them. I’llgive you the letter, if you want. Why don’tyou read those two letters. I’ll stretch a littlebit, and then we’ll proceed.

Simonds: We’ll take a break, then.

Bowser: All right. [Tape recorder turned off.]

Selling Small Tracts of Land

Another function of my career wasdisposal of small tracts and homesteadprogram. We had a number of small tractsscattered on Reclamation projects throughoutthe western states, and legislation was passedthat we could sell these tracts, and we soldtracts in the Wellton-Mohawk, Yuma AuxiliaryProject, and Yuma Projects, probably soldmore land than any other region. I particularlylike to sell land. I like to buy and sell.

Then, of course, we had a homesteadprogram on Coachella and Wellton-Mohawk,no problems were encountered. Ed Nance[phonetic], now retired, is on specialassignment at Yuma Projects Office, and hehas probably the best record of any of that

45


work. Bob Cucci [phonetic], of the LandOffice, and his appraiser, Bob Budie[phonetic], were instrumental at the projectlevel in doing it, and I just coordinated fromthe regional office.

Retired Land in the Wellton-Mohawk Division ofthe Gila Project

We also bought several thousand acresof land for retirement in the Wellton-MohawkDivision of the Gila Project, and one timeCommissioner Stamm pigeonholed me at aconference someplace and said, “What’s this Ihear about you buying land from excess landowners?” That’s always been a Reclamationproject, is the 160-acre limitation. I said,“Conceivably, there is a little problem here, butthe companies that I have been buying fromonly own 160 acres and it’s a willing seller anda willing buyer, and we negotiate without anytrouble.” I didn’t tell him that the mailingaddress of every company was the same lawoffice. (Laughter.) And never heard anythingmore about it.

Working with Creed George

I traveled the region. I traveledregionwide for thirty years and enjoyed it verymuch. Got deflated once by a man called Cliff

46


Pugh, a Phoenix planning officer. Seemed Iwas always going out with an older man at thetime, Creed George [phonetic], they regardedhim as an old-timer when I first came here. Ithought I was being trained, and I certainlywas. I seemed to go everyplace. He and someof his counterparts knew every acre of land,Reclamation land. We had some three millionacres of land. Their counterparts were WarrenTurner and a man by the name of Robison[phonetic]. But I’d go out with Creed Georgeand, oh, they’d assign me to go with him, “Oh,when you’re down here, you’ll go with CreedGeorge.” I said, “Yep.” And years later Ifound out he was a diabetic that was liable topass out at any time, and I was going with himjust to have somebody at his side. They didn’tgive a damn about me and the heat. But it wasa learning experience. It was good. It wasgood, because it was my responsibility, too,though.

Creed always told me to drink morewater, but I prided myself not to need water,and, of course, I always wondered why myurine looked like molasses, and I should havelistened. It was said in good advice. It wasgood advice and given with concern.

Just a note on my associates andpersonnel both up and below my position. Of

47


course, you have to give them full credit fortheir cooperation and support. The workwasn’t too hard, and quite enjoyable. I lookedat other jobs, but my wife would always say,“How about insurance and retirement?” So westayed with Reclamation.

“. . . they said, ‘Cut one of your two men,’ and Iwent to them and said, ‘One of you has to go, andI’ll let you decide that between yourselves.’ Abouta week later, they came in, both of them came in

and said, ‘We’re both leaving.’. . .”

I had a good staff, and at one time theyhad to cut the staff down in Boulder City, andthey said, “Cut one of your two men,” and Iwent to them and said, “One of you has to go,and I’ll let you decide that betweenyourselves.” About a week later, they came in,both of them came in and said, “We’re bothleaving.” They had got jobs and they were realelated. They got promotions, too, and theywent right on to the top and retired at my gradelevel or even above. Very proud of them.

I had a job opening then, and I asked aman that I’d been looking at for years, not in400, and he said, “No, Curt, I don’t believe Icare to work for you. You drive your men toohard, and you’re not too tolerant.” I said,“Thank you for being frank with me.” Later,

48


he said, “I made a mistake,” which was prettybig of him, I thought, to have said that.

Hired Stan Seigal to Fill His Vacancy on theCondition He Get a Higher Education

So I went to another man called StanleySeigal, and had always kind of admired himfrom the back, the sideline, I should say. Hesaid, sure, he’d like to try it, and I offered himthe job on a condition that he get a highereducation. He buckled right down and went tonight school and got a degree, as far as I know. He’s had a spectacular career, really, a verygood career. He seemed to tolerate myapproach to job assignments. I was kind ofaccused of saying to the men, “Let’s get yourviews, and then I’ll tell you how we’re going todo it” type, but someone has to be responsible,and someone has to take the lead.

“. . . I would have liked to have influenced thedevelopment of the east and west mesas . . . andPilot Knob mesas in California, with . . . bubblersor drip systems. Would have been the greatest

citrus-growing area in the United States. But weweren’t ready for that . . .”

Career regrets. I have virtually none. In hindsight, I would have liked to haveinfluenced the development of the east and

49


west mesas, particularly the east mesa and PilotKnob mesas in California, with trickle or dripirrigation, and with bubblers or drip systems. Would have been the greatest citrus-growingarea in the United States. But we weren’tready for that, and I had to wait for thedevelopment in Israel, coordinating with theUniversity of California, to get that techniquemore or less perfected.

Rather than Use Arizona’s Colorado RiverAllocation for Developments down the River, it

Was Determined the Water Would Go to theCentral Arizona Project

Then the decision was made that the waterwould go to the Central Arizona Project, andthe big projects in metropolitan and so on andso forth.

Impressed with the State Land Commissioner ofArizona, Bruce Babbitt

I have a couple more little thoughts herethat I thought about just before you came. Letme see if I can find those. When I was shavingthis morning, I thought about the outstandingmen and women that had impact on my tenurein the government, and most of the supervisorsin the chain of command were exceptionalmen. I was very impressed with State Land

50


Commissioner of Arizona [Bruce] Babbitt,who’s now the Secretary of the Interior. Hewould drive an old Volkswagen to the YMCAin Phoenix and work out, and then eat with thestaff. Creed George knew them all, and wewould lunch with them. He just seemed to beone of the men.

Then, of course, all the attorneys in theregional solicitor’s office and the U.S.attorneys in L.A. and Phoenix were exceptionalmen. I met with them probably three times amonth for nearly twenty years on land use,trespass, acquisition, and so on and so forth.

A Ploy Once Used in Court on a Trespass Case bya Company’s Representative

Just to give you a demonstration or anindication of that mode of life, we had a littleland problem with a big company down nearSan Luis in Arizona, and they had an attorney,of course, and a field representative. The fieldrepresentative was carrying the load on thecompany’s position, nice, about my age, andwe dined with him, or ate lunch with himseveral times, pre-trial conference-type things. He would talk fluently about art and his travelsparticularly to Europe. Next couple of weeks,he was on the witness stand, dressed veryplainly, a little better than just work clothing,

51


and the U.S. Attorney asked him a question,and he interrupted and asked the judge to havethe United States Attorney rephrase thequestion and make it simpler so he couldunderstand it. (Laughter.) Kind of a good littleploy, I thought.

Chief Justice William Rehnquist OnceRepresented a Large Holding in the Yuma and

Needles Areas

Chief Justice [William] Rehnquist wasonce the attorney for Sherrell and LaFollette[phonetic], a large landowner both in the Yumaarea and in Needles area, and that was one ofthe accretion cases that came up. In pre-trialmeetings, Chief Justice Rehnquist seemed tobe very down to earth. He tried to cooperate.

“But that was more or less my approach, of justhitting it head on . . . no one seemed to pay anyattention to what I’d do. I just plowed ahead at a

reasonable course. . . .”

Another man that impressed me verymuch was state land commissioner of Arizona. We were crossing state land with a power lineand had the land appraised, and we knew whatmoney we could offer, and met in the state landcommissioner’s office to discuss it with thecommissioner, and met with the administrative

52


assistant. The administrative Assistant said,“The commissioner’s a very down-to-earthperson. I don’t think we’re too far apart onvalue, but the commissioner’s very reasonable. When he gets up in the morning, he wantslights when he turns the switch on.” That waskind of the clue that I wanted, and we went inthere and I laid out our position, and he laid outhis, and I said, “We’re not far apart. Howabout just going down about the middle?” Andhe said, “Yes,” and I was out of there in threeminutes. But that was more or less myapproach, of just hitting it head on, but try tohave it–no one seemed to pay any attention towhat I’d do. I just plowed ahead at areasonable course.

Robert Austin

You should probably considerinterviewing a man by the name of RobertAustin. He started to work in Yuma on theAll-American Canal Project, and finished hiscareer in Boulder City as regional engineer. He has a very good insight to work in the earlyyears, and probably got closer to personnelthan I ever did. Shall we say his tenure in lifeis not–well, he’s getting old. I think he wouldcontribute probably more of those early yearsthan anybody I know that’s–

53


Simonds: Where does he live?

Bowser: Here in Boulder City. Very likeable,presentable man. I’d be glad to make theinitial contact with you, if you so elect.

Simonds: I’ll certainly look into it. I’ll check with theboss and see what he thinks.

Bowser: I certainly want to thank you for evenconsidering me in your interview of “old-timers.” I hope that my thoughts andrecollections were of some interest.

Simonds: Certainly.

Bowser: I don’t know why. (Laughter.)

Simonds: I do have a few questions.

Bowser: It seems like I’ve monopolized it, and I’m notsure that’s what you had expected. We haveplenty of time.

Simonds: That’s fine.

Bowser: Shoot. I’ll make up answers as you go.

Simonds: Make them up as we go.

Bowser: Right.

54


Simonds: One thing comes to mind, I think that Stan hadmentioned that you had Floyd Dominy as acollege professor. Is that correct?

Experience with and Memories of Floyd DominyWhen in Grade School and While at Reclamation

Bowser: No. When I went to Hillsdale Grade School, atmid-year, there was a man came in to assist theteacher on teaching mathematics or something,and one of the most dynamic men I’ve everseen at the time. He was virtually–I don’tthink he ever slept. He was just a whirlwind,and his wife. My brother and a man by thename of Teddy Boyd had cars, and when itsnowed, they would tow this man, FloydDominy, and his wife behind the cars on a towline. Of course, the wind would blow the snowinto the borrow pits, and they would ride in thebarrow pits, just getting it. I was veryimpressed with that, because the wind alwaysblew their snow off. In the borrow pits youcould ski for maybe half a mile at a time. Itwas very good.

Simonds: They’d be up on skis?

Bowser: Yes, snow skis. He was my teacher there for awhile, and then suddenly–he was there part ofthe summer, too, and I always remember onelittle incident. Oh, boy, you’re going back–

55


pretty quick it’s going to be last century. (Laughter.)

Mr. Dominy’s interest and his careerwas in animal husbandry, agriculture, so onand so forth. A family by the name of Burkett[phonetic], who lived not far out of town, had aHolstein bull. I’d better be careful–Holstein orAngus bull, I don’t remember which. Theranchers there did not like the Holstein orAngus bulls because they were strong, bigrascals and they’d jump over the fence andbreed the purebred short-horn Hereford cattle. That didn’t set too well. So a common practicewas to take a .22 rifle and shoot the dingus offof the invading bull.

They called this young agricultural manin the school system out one day. I was notthere. This is virtually hearsay, but I guess it’strue. The bull’s scrotum was as big as awashbasin, and Dominy took one look andsaid, “Obviously the bull’s testicles have tocome out. Give me a knife.” They threw thebull down and removed them, and the wholecommunity was very impressed with Mr.Dominy. Everyone was sorry to see him go. He took a county agent job in Natrona County,I believe, and that’s the last I ever saw of himuntil I met him one time in Reclamation inrepayment after the war.

56


I went out to his farm in Virginia, veryimpressed that he was in intelligence. I’mgoing to say the Navy, but it could have beenthe Army. He had learned Japanese in thecourse of this work and had got fluent in it in aperiod of three, four weeks, which wasphenomenal. I think I saw an article orsomething he had, a commendation, of hownobody could do that, but he did. He was quitea gentlemen.

Shoot.

Simonds: Then you worked under him when he wasCommissioner?

Bowser: Well, I was here, but I had no direct–Dominywas a very strong man, both in testifying to theCongress, and he demanded a lot, but he didn’ttrust a lot of people. So he had–I don’t want touse that word “stooges,” but he had friends thathe could rely upon–A. B. West, Leon Hill,regional directors, even before they wereregional, when they were coming up, andseveral others who I don’t believe I recall. And they were pretty close-knit, and they justabout ruled the roost.

Two or three incidents, also hearsay,come to mind that’ll demonstrate how heoperated. He was out on one of the big canals

57


in California and was driving on an inspectiontrip. One time he said the project manager waslooking at the signs to see if they were up, “NoFishing,” “No Trespassing,” and Dominy said,“Why are we not fishing here?” “Oh,operating roads, liability.” Dominy got out ofthe car and kicked the sign down, said, “Nowit’s open for fishing.” (Laughter.)

Someplace up in Utah once, he got intoa rhubarb with a project manager, and two dayslater the project manager was no longer there. (Laughter.)

One time I got a call here fromsomebody, I don’t even remember who it was,and said that, “Floyd Dominy did not get up intime to get to the airplane to go to GrandCanyon, so he drove the car to Kingman. Canyou get to Kingman and get the car and returnit to the rental agency?” And I said, “Sure.” And I went over and got the car and drove itback to the rental agency. He never forgot me,but I never asked him for anything, and as faras I know, he never gave me anything. (Laughter.)

Shoot.

Arleigh B. West

58


Simonds: You worked under A. B. West for quite awhile, it sounds like.

Bowser: I worked under A. B. West technically until heretired as regional director here and wassucceeded by a man by the name of WadeTaylor. I could have that wrong. Yes, Iworked here all the time with A. B. West asregional supervisor of water and landoperations, and then as regional director.

Simonds: It sounds like he was pretty much, when hewanted something done, you went and got itdone.

“. . . we were all from the old school. ‘It’s a job. Ifyou want it, do it.’ The boss says ‘Jump,’ you say,

‘How high?’ . . .”

Bowser: Oh, very definitely. Same with Dominy andsame with Leon Hill. All of those men hadthat exceptional–you couldn’t dislike them, norcould you like them. (Laughter.) It was a job. Of course, we were all from the old school. “It’s a job. If you want it, do it.” The bosssays “Jump,” you say, “How high?” I don’tknow.

But he also gave you–at least A. B.West would give you credit where credit wasdue. I don’t think he was selfish in that way.

59


The only place I felt that he was selfish was, Iworked for–not selfish. That’s too strong of aword. I worked with McCullouch [phonetic]when McCullouch was buying up the Army’srecreation area down at Lake Havasu City. There was land deals, and the London Bridgewas coming in, and all that. We had problemshere and there. It took quite a little time withtheir attorneys and our attorneys, and one timewhen it was all over, McCullouch invited–acelebration, an opening, a get-together on it. They came up and they flew A. B. West down,and they never did mention me, but I did get aletter from my counterpart saying how nice itwas that I worked with them on that. But Iguess if I’d have asked A. B., he would havesaid, “Yes, I’ll go with you,” but I’m not muchto want recognition. (Laughter.)

Pet Cemetery on Federal Land

Simonds: Stan was telling me about some little thingsaround the area that I always thought were kindof interesting. He mentioned that there was aperson who had a pet cemetery out on theSearchlight Highway.

Bowser: Yes. Boulder City had a veterinarian–not aveterinarian, a man who cared for pets, knewquite a good deal about them, and if you hadsomething wrong with your dog or cat, you’d

60


call him and ask him, or he’d put it to sleep orwhatever. Almost a community service. Ifyou wanted to give him something, he mighttake it to buy something, but I don’t think heever used it for his personal gain or anything. “Oh, I’ve got a buy a leash for her. I’ll tell herthat you bought it for her,” and stuff like that.

This man then kind of followed alongwith the semi-vet, and would bury animalsdown in the Dry Lake area. He would haveservices for them, and some of the headstoneswere quite elaborate, and some were quitefamous show dogs from Vegas. It was well-kept, maintained, and had a nice little fencearound it, and was discreet for a pet cemetery. There was some opposition to a pet cemeterybeing kind of on the not deluxe, adequate side.

Everything was going smoothly untilsomebody’s pet died in Las Vegas, and theindividual called his caretaker of the cemeteryand said, “I’d like to bury him there,” and hesaid, “There isn’t a fee, really, but for upkeep Ido kind of like to have a contribution.” Theguy said, “Hell, it’s on Federal land. I’m notgoing to contribute anything to you.” And thecaretaker said, “Well, you’re not going to buryit here.” I do not know whether the animal wasburied there or not. But the first thing the–I’m

61


going to say Commissioner’s office wrote aletter through the Personnel Office–


Bowser: Of course, I knew about it. And what can youreally say to a co-worker? (Laughter.) So thepersonnel . . . West called, naturally, and said,“Get rid of it.” More discreet than that,though. And I was to work with GilesAnderson, the personnel officer. I wrote alittle–I penciled a little digest of the ownershipof the land and how this man had wanted tobuy it from Boulder City, but it was premature,it wasn’t quite in the cards, and said that it hadno–he was a trespasser, in other words. Sothey gave him a choice of going on with it or–Ido not know how it was settled. He rarelyspoke to me since. He always blames me fornot assisting him in some way, but my handswere tied. I had no legal way of doing it. Itwould just have implicated more people.

Simonds: So did it come down to he had to remove it?

Bowser: I think it just deteriorated, and I think henotified the people, “We can no longer care forit.” I’ve never gone back there. I rarely lookback.

62


Simonds: As far as you know, it’s still out–

Bowser: I would doubt it. I would doubt it. If it is, it’snot maintained anymore.

Shoot.

Simonds: Stan also mentioned that you were–

Bowser: I’m going to get after this guy Stan.(Laughter.)

Likes to Buy and Sell Things

Simonds: You can start telling me about Stan here in alittle bit. (Laughter.) That you were a bit of acollector, I guess you might say, of whateverother folks were no longer in need of.

Bowser: Things just seem to migrate toward me, and Ijust–and then as they got older, “Oh, give it toCurt Bowser. He likes those things.” Then thefirst thing I know, I have rooms andwarehouses full of stuff that people have givenme, and I buy actively on various things ofgeneral interest to me, some good, some poor. Lots of junk, lots of kernels of gold among thejunk.

Simonds: I think he mentioned that you had somehowgotten some demolition timers that had then

63


converted into irrigation timers or water timersor something like that. Is that right?

Bowser: Oh, yes. I used to deal in surplus. In fact, Ihad a business on the side all the time. A. B.West kind of indicated once I ought to make adecision as to which interest I really had, and Ididn’t say anything, I just cut down on mysleep and kept on going. (Laughter.)

An engineer by the name of Bob Bellis[phonetic] looked at the number of peopleturning on lawn sprinkler systems here andsaid, “Hell, I can do that mechanically,” andway before Rainbird and Toro brought outautomatic systems, we had systems operatinghere. I was his supplier. I had the Sangamotime clocks that I had bought from a stateagency in Kansas. They had them on hot waterheaters, the house hot water heaters, so at agiven time they could turn off the electricityand that would save load for other morevaluable customers or more higher payingcustomers. So I bought thousands of those. They all didn’t go into timers, don’tmisunderstand me. And then we had to have avalve, so I found a valve, a differential pressurevalve, out of military aircraft, and Bob Belliswould convert those and we would sell them asunits. Bellis sold them as units. My profit wasin the system itself.

64


I still have one in operation right here. Now, there’s the timer and that’s the Sangamotimer, and it’s been operating–not the sameclock, because it’s probably been there forthirty, thirty-five years, and I’ve had to replacethe clock every ten years or so. But the valves,of course, they were aluminum, and they woulddeteriorate in this water, and then plastic valvescame out. That timer is still being used. As faras I know, it’s probably the only one inexistence. That was just my–and then, ofcourse, I rebuilt this house in my free time. Idon’t sleep much. (Laughter.)

Simonds: Stan mentioned that at least for the first fewyears you were in the area, there was noshortage of excess materials along the roadbetween Boulder City and Railroad Pass.

Bowser: Well, there was the old Camp Williston here,and nobody was gathering a lot of that stuff up. It was just laying in the desert. I was prone tobuying it, and then, of course, the BoulderCanyon Project would be selling surplus parts. We had a large garage here. They sold all thecar parts, car and truck parts, up to, say, ‘43once, and then they sold them again in ‘47, andI put a bid in, and I’d get them. I wouldwholesale them out.

65


Then I bought quite a little bit of stuff atthe test site. I bought tons and tons of stuff atthe test site, and lots of times I only acted as amiddle man. I’d take a day off and drive upthere and supervise the loading. I kept–well, ifthere wasn’t enough of it to warrant shipping, Iwould keep it myself, and that would be part ofmy profit, my compensation. I tried to makeends meet that way. I didn’t make any money,but it kept me busy.

I bought sixty-, seventy tents up thereafter their atomic blasts, where the troops hadstayed, and I cooperated, or coordinated, mywork with one of Reclamation’s employeeswho had charge of the lawns up here. We wentup and loaded them on vehicles I had. He wasa very good man to work with, because Ishared the profit with him. The tents soldrapidly. I don’t know why we didn’t getradioactive burns or something out of them, butwe never seemed to. But he always said,“Curt, I really appreciate this, because I don’thave enough money to do it, and you share theprofit with me after expenses are taken out, andI appreciate it.” He was the only man thatrealized that the capital–had to have the capitalto do the work.

One time he got real mad at me. Wewere loading a tent. They’re just like a sack of

66


flour. We were lifting and lifting and lifting,and he was standing on one of the ropes to thepin. I laughed, and he got mad for a second. Then he laughed, too. (Laughter.) It was a hotday.

Simonds: Who were some of the people here in BoulderCity that you remember? Were there notablecharacters?

Bowser: Really, there wasn’t hardly anybody outside ofthe business community, which is very limited. They were generally a kind of a graspinggroup, but not much different than any smalltown in the West. So it was all governmentemployees, plus the Department of Water andPower, City of Los Angeles group that werewell paid. But they were in operation of thedam and didn’t associate much withReclamation. There weren’t too many really–oh, there were many outstanding people, butthey were mostly associated with thegovernment.

Transfer of Boulder City out of Federal Ownershipand Control

Simonds: Were there any issues or controversiessurrounding Reclamation’s transfer of BoulderCity out of Federal ownership?

67


Bowser: Oh, yes. There was a group of people wholived in the government houses that wereconcerned what would happen to them. Therewere the usual people who thought that thetown was doing all right the way it is. And inmany ways the town was very good. Therewere other people who saw businessopportunities. So there was some controversy,but the die was cast. It had to get rid of GrandCoulee, Boulder City, Davis Dam, and all ofthose, and probably many more. So it wasdisposed of in timely, orderly fashion.

Simonds: Boulder City is notable among Nevada cities inthat there’s no gambling in Boulder City. Isthat by law?

Bowser: That’s by an ordinance, yes.

Simonds: I know out on the road to the dam, there’s–

Bowser: That’s the Gold Strike.

Simonds: –the Gold Strike, which is now closed after thefire.

Bowser: But it will be rebuilt, and that has a license.

Simonds: That’s, I assume, out of the city limits?

Bowser: That’s out of the city limits.

68


Simonds: And therefore not subject to–

Gold Strike Inn Was an Inholding on MiningClaims

Bowser: That’s kind of a little enclave. I worked a greatdeal on that. When superintendent Lake MeadNational Recreation Area Ritchie was settingup the area, he met with West, and then Westassigned me to study the validity of the miningclaims on which the Gold Strike Inn wassituate. I ran through it, and there was nodoubt they were valid, proven-up claims. Thisman Williams had acquired the necessaryamount of land for the lake itself. So Ritchiewas pressing A. B. West for Reclamation tobuy out the Gold Strike claims. There wasn’tmuch there. It wouldn’t have been too much. And West bluntly told me, “Hell, no.” No, hedidn’t. He never swore. I never heard him saya word like that. “No, Reclamation would notbuy that. If Park Service wanted to buy it, theyshould buy it.” And the case was closed.

Whether Park Service negotiated, I donot know. It went on then and was developedby several local townspeople and one manfrom Las Vegas. Turned out to be, inretrospect, it was probably good that it didn’tgo into the Federal Government, although it isan enclave within the Lake Mead National

69


Recreation Area outside of the protection andsecurity zone for Hoover Dam. So, from abusiness standpoint and from a use standpoint,it’s as good as–probably a little better situate. It’s on the road, as is Railroad Pass. So it’s adone deal. It’s there.

Simonds: About when did the Gold Strike go in there? When was that built?

Bowser: I’d have to check back. The mining claimswere there well before the–probably before orduring the period of dam construction. I wouldjust offhand say before. When the actualbuilding started, I do not know. It was a verymodest thing to start with, and it’s just grownand grown.

Simonds: So the building that’s there now is not theoriginal?

Bowser: I would think the original is in theresomeplace, but added to.

Simonds: But it’s been there for quite a while?

Bowser: Oh, I would say the fifties.

Simonds: Oh, that long?

70

4. See footnote on page 49.5. The Gold Strike Inn had both a hotel and casino, but itburned and the Hacienda Hotel and Casino was built in its place.


Bowser: Yes, because my involvement started about1958, ‘59, or so, because the Lake MeadNational Recreation Area establishment was‘61,4 I believe, so it had to be several yearsbefore that. I had some association and I knewthe principals and the background.

Simonds: And it’s their intention to rebuild?

Bowser: Yes, I understand they are going to rebuild it.5

Simonds: It doesn’t look like they’ve done much theresince I was by there six months ago. (Laughter.)

Bowser: No, I don’t think it’s active yet, but what I readwas that it’s going to be rebuilt. They’llprobably wait until they see what the–thiswould be prudent, if you were an investor,where is the bypass road across Hoover Damgoing to go, and how best to fit into thatconfiguration. I would think that would bewhat I would do if I was working on theproject.

Railroad Pass and Klinger’s Garage

71


Simonds: Then, of course, on the other side [of BoulderCity] there’s Railroad Pass.

Bowser: Railroad Pass was established–of course, it washere when I came here and had been here manyyears before. My understanding is that in themid-thirties you could not–first we had agovernment town with government housing, toa degree, and there was a gate out at RailroadPass, and you could not cross that gate unlessyou had a permit indicating that you had abusiness, a reason, a visitor or a job.

So, two little things were establishedthere. One was Railroad Pass, and the otherwas called Klinger’s [phonetic] Garage. Mr.Klinger was a very enterprising gentleman, andhe would bring food in from Las Vegas andsell it to these people who were waiting outsideof the gate to get in, either to get employmentor get clearance, and was making reasonablygood money. He was on a mining claim there,too. It was a questionable mining claim, but itproved out that they had had title, so there wasno problem later in life.

Simonds: He was just doing mining of a different sort? (Laughter.)

Bowser: Yeah. But it was cleared up politically. Railroad Pass then was just a little hangout.

72


And there was one on the top of the hill thenfurther up the road toward Vegas, on the left-hand side. It was called–I’ve forgotten thename. I think it was Sunset Club or somethinglike that. It was operated by a Las Vegasfamily. But I don’t know why it–probablyabout 1950, it just folded and never–the landhas not been occupied since. I do not know theownership of that land.

Simonds: A lot of those clubs along there had fairlynotorious reputations going back to the periodof construction.

Bowser: Oh, yes, yes, and many people stayed on thatside. There were wine and women. It was aconstruction zone. It was even fairly activewhen I came here, quite discreet. There wasno openness about it, but people went therelooking for entertainment and it was available. There was nothing on the other side of thedam, virtually nothing to Kingman.

Simonds: And, of course, the laws in Arizona–

Bowser: Yes, prohibited it.

Simonds: –didn’t allow for certain forms ofentertainment which are in Nevada. (Laughter.)

73


Bowser: Sure.

Simonds: By ordinance, they don’t allow gambling inBoulder City. And, it’s my understanding thatalcohol was prohibited–

Alcohol in Boulder City

Bowser: Yes.

Simonds: –for quite awhile. When was that prohibition,do you recall about when?

Bowser: I don’t know. I don’t recall.

Simonds: Was there resistance to that?

Bowser: No. It was just being bootlegged in anyway. So it was just more or less tolerated andadopted, just kind of migrated in. When Icame here, I think about the only place youcould buy beer would be at the pool hall, andthen a couple of more little taverns crept in. It’s kind of restricted here, though, so it’s notwide open, and it’s not wide open gambling intown. I imagine they will try to, as years goby, there are forces at times that try to think,well, we should overturn the ban against thesethings and have it more like Las Vegas, but Ithink the general populace of the town says,“We like it. If you want to go to gamble and

74


big-time entertainment, it’s just over the hill,”and it’s virtually a freeway now. I would thinkthat Boulder City would take a moreconservative course.

Simonds: There does appear to be quite a bit of growth inrecent years. I notice when you go over thehill, along the road down to the dam there’s alot of newer construction and housing and stuffgoing in.

Boulder City Has a Growth Ordinance

Bowser: Oh, yes. The town– the valley is coming thisway. We’ve had a growth ordinance. Only somany lots can be developed each year, andthat, to some degree, has suppressed the boomof the town.

Environmental Issues

Of course, the town, in land area, is the largesttown in Nevada by land area, and there arecertain restrictions on the use of the land, theTortoise Preserve and this and that. But theydo their darnedest to weaken those restrictions. I imagine the old Federal Government willalways be looking over the shoulder, and theenvironmental groups will say, “Look. I don’tthink a big airport down here is reallycompatible with these poor little tortoises

75


walking around,” so there’s going to be tugsand pulls further down the road. Economicswill play a big role in it.

Remember we had a group of peoplethat I bucked up against not too discreetly,because I’m not discreet, but the environmentalgroups were coming in, in force, when I wasabout in the latter part of my career. Theywould brazenly say, “Oh, Curt’s a good oldguy, but you don’t want to listen to anybodyover forty.” Well, those same people now area little older, so the Abbie Hoffman theory,they can’t listen to anybody less than 104 now. (Laughter.) And the environmental groupswere pushed. They pushed pretty hard. I’mpretty well trained in sciences, and theyweren’t always on firm foundation. Somethings did more harm than good. All in all, itwas for the good, though. But many peoplerode that environmental movement by usingthe word “ecology” and “environment,” and itdid make people more aware.

But by the same token, they also tookrights. See, everybody has, particularly inland, there’s a bundle of rights. You canregard them as straws in a jar. And, each oneof those is a right. You have a right for thisproperty, and sometimes the environmentalgroups or the protectionist groups will say,

76


“Well, we will not let you cross this land ofyours to get to the water unless you dosomething for this game preserve.” It was kindof a blackmail. And some of those are nowgoing to the Supreme Court, and that cannot bedone. If you take a right, you have tocompensate for that right. It’s new theory.

Eminent Domain

I was coached very, very strongly in therights of eminent domain, a very powerfulweapon. For the good of the people, you cantake your glasses. Good. Take your car. Takeyour house. We exercised it a great deal. Itwas used here in Vegas, where the city wouldexercise its right of eminent domain and thenturn the land over to non-city organizations foroperations like on the Fremont Streetexperience and out at the airport. The SupremeCourt now is overruling some of those, and thecity has found great liability. I don’t knowhow they got so far off by just stretching theeminent domain technique to a breaking point.

Arrived in Boulder City as the Region Was beingEstablished

Simonds: You mentioned that when you arrived here in1945, just about the time that the regionalsystem–

77


Bowser: I think there were only about ten or fifteenpeople here in the region at that time.

Simonds: You indicated that there was some animositybetween the project people and the regional.

Bowser: They could feel crowded. They could see theend coming, and the project was built. It wasdownhill, except the operation part. And they,I think, resented the intrusion of a new group,generally younger, new ideas, taking over theoffices and this and that. Personally, they weregood friends, but there was always that–can’tcall it competition–just career fear.

Simonds: But it didn’t seem to really interfere with–

Bowser: Those older folks passed on. (Laughter.) Andthe project was more or less absorbed into itsoperational phase, and the town changed andaccepted it.

Simonds: We’re rolling down towards the end of thistape, and I think you mentioned you had[unclear].

Bowser: I’m not that critical on time.

Simonds: I do have a plane I have to catch. I want tothank you for your time.

78


Bowser: Well, I thank you for even considering me,because I don’t know why anybody wouldwant to talk to somebody who just rambled.

Simonds: One last little formality. Do you have anyobjection to, or do you desire to place anyrestrictions on the transcript?

Bowser: None whatsoever.

Simonds: We would be allowed to open this up toresearchers–

Bowser: Throw it away.

Simonds: –if they so desire?

Bowser: Throw it away. (Laughter.)

Simonds: Okay, thank you very much for your time.

Bowser: Well, I thank you, sir.

END SIDE 2, TAPE 2. MARCH 12, 1999.BEGIN SIDE 1, TAPE 1. OCTOBER 1, 1999.

Simonds: This is Joe Simonds with the Bureau ofReclamation history program. I’m in BoulderCity, Nevada, at the home of Mr. Curt Bowser. And it’s October 1, of 1999. This is the start oftape one.

79


Phreatophyte Control on the Salt River Project

To start with, I’d like to pick up a littlebit talking about your work down on the SaltRiver with phreatophyte control. Aninteresting time trying to spell the word. I hadto go track it down, and it wasn’t what I hadthought it was. I always thought it was–

Bowser: P-H-R-E-A-T-O-P-H-Y-T-E.

Simonds: I found one of the people in our environmentalsection who could spell it right off. Butbriefly, if you could, just give me a briefdescription of what the canals were like beforeyou began the removal of vegetation.

Bowser: Are we on record now?

Simonds: We’re on record.

Bowser: All right. Of course, I’ll have to guess on someyears here.

Simonds: That’s fine.

Mormon Pioneers Planted Cottonwood andMulberry Trees

Bowser: But the early Mormon pioneers–and most ofthem were Mormon–or the early settlers in the

80


Salt River Valley, dug the ditches probably byhorse and just hand labor and put the largercanals, the carrying canals, on section lines ormid-section lines, and then went into the farms. And on the main canals and the secondarycanals, they planted cottonwood trees,primarily, with a smattering of mulberry andprobably other plants. And we’re talkingprobably 1906 through 1920, and thesecottonwoods are prolific growers, both indiameter near the trunk and in height and justgeneral foliar umbrella-spreading. I wouldassume that lots of them came out through theyears, just from getting in the way, but many ofthem remained, I would think maybe severalhundred miles or more of them, and they justkept flourishing with their toes in the water, soto speak.

As Salt River Started Rehabilitation of its Canals itWas Determined the Trees Had to Go to Protect

Canal Lining

Then at an early date, when Salt Riverstarted to think about rehabilitation of thewhole project, the obvious answer at that timewas to gunite them, which is a thin concretelayer in a ditch that is shaped. And my boss,Wes, just simply said, “We can’t have theseplants there.” First, you could never get [to]the canal in if you don’t take them out.

81


They’re just going to crack the lining in a shortperiod of time.

Now, in general appearance, they wereprobably 20 to maybe 60-, 70 feet in height,and in a smaller canal, say on a mid-sectionline in a farm canal, they would lots of timesthe upper story of the tree would touch theupper story of the tree over the farm lane oreven on the, I’ll say, country road or countyroad. It was gorgeous. It was utterly gorgeous. But it was necessary to take them out, and SaltRiver officials–well, there was no choice. There was no alternative.

Simonds: This went on for miles and miles?

Bowser: Miles and miles, in every direction out ofPhoenix, because Phoenix was just a little townin there, with little Mesa and Tempe andGoodyear, just little spots. Now it’s all filledin, with no trees, but no alfalfa or cotton fields,either. Just houses.

They just simply started with theequipment that was available then, more or lessheavy-duty chain saw, axes, tractors, backhoe,and would just come along and pull and push. Their general labor force was the Yaqui Indian. Now, as I mentioned once before, there’s avery graphic picture of this in this museum,

82


that you’ll get the exact address and everythingfrom Stan, because he took me there, and it’sfantastic. Next time, spend ten or fifteenminutes there. Well, it’d be nice to spend acouple hours. But you could see it from dayone right on through from the photographsavailable.

Simonds: This is in Tempe.

Bowser: In Tempe or Mesa. There is a man by thename of Ted Walker that works for Salt RiverProject. He’s still alive. Of course, he hasmore intimate knowledge than I have becausehe lived there and worked right on the project,where I was kind of an outsider all the time. Although they tolerated us, they did as theypleased, because we had no directresponsibility, outside of this repayment, R&R,rehabilitation.

The trees, the cut trees and stumps,were just taken and put in ricks wherever theycould find some vacant land, particularly uparound Tolleson and Goodyear and up in thatarea. And then they were burned, and theashes were distributed by the wind or hauledaway. It was quite a task. I would not haveany intimate knowledge as to how many treesthere were or how many miles, but that wouldbe easy to get to be exact.

83


Simonds: It was significant, though?

Bowser: Oh, yes, more than significant. It was amonumental task.

Simonds: Had there been any attempts at removing thevegetation prior to your–

Bowser: No, I think they actually cultivated it,encouraged it and everything. The oppositionthat you heard was scenic, minor wildlife, thebirds and everything, and wind control, andyou cannot deny that–well, it’s hard to say thatthere’s more wind today than there wasyesterday, but there certainly wasn’t anythingto stop it, and I don’t imagine there’s muchwind today because it’s whistling between thehouses. So the transition, well we’ve made acircle.

Simonds: What about the human uses of the canal area,other than, of course, the transport of water forirrigation and other purposes.

Kids Swam in the Canals

Bowser: Oh, I think it was used widely for everythingbut potable supply. In the summer, you wouldsee kids frolicking, with tires hung in the trees,diving off. And I imagine there was a safetyproblem there, because it constricted to go

84


underneath the lanes and underneath the roads,and water would rush through there prettyrapidly. And I would assume they had grateson it here and there, and it would be hazardousswimming. But at 110 [degrees], and evenwith the tree shade, it would be tempting toany.

Then on some canals, particularly out inthe Tempe area, I believe there was atremendous amount of even organizedrecreation there with, I’ll just say, picnics ofgroups and, “Oh, let’s go down there andpicnic.” I do not recall of any off-canal bankareas, like a little–but you never would findthem anyplace, probably, in the forties or thethirties. Of course, I never saw it in thethirties, but in the forties and fifties you didn’thave much of that. You kind of went andfound a tree and a blanket, and you had apicnic. You didn’t have benches. It would benice to go out there and see are there any picnicareas with benches and tables and barbecueunits now. I don’t know. Vandalism, ofcourse, has always been a problem with those,so they have not been popular in the last,unless they have a custodian around, and thenit’s a fee and this and that. But the free type isnot as popular. You don’t see them along theroadsides hardly anymore, and many people

85


will not stop at a roadside rest area anymore,particularly after dark, unfortunately.

Simonds: Would you describe those areas along the canalas a focal point for socialization, socialactivities?

Bowser: I doubt if it would quite go that far. Maybe inwhat you might say the working-classcommunity, it might have been. But within theimmediate city area, I do not know.

Simonds: When you began the program of removing thetrees and clearing the vegetation, was there–you mentioned that there was some resistancebecause of concerns, the wildlife and the shadeand stuff like that. Were there any organizedtype of resistance?

Bowser: No. I think the people just realized that thetime had come. We have to save the water, getthe water through more efficiently, and in somecases, I imagine the trees were nuisances. Certainly they were nuisances to the developerwho was thinking about, “Let’s develop thisforty acres,” and he’d have to–something hadto go.

Simonds: You mentioned in our earlier talk that youconducted some experiments as to how much

86


water these trees used, and you followed theroots to see how far they would extend.

Demonstrating the Extent of Tree Root Systems

Bowser: Yes, just as a very elementary sideline. Asuggestion was made that you demonstrate thatthese tree roots go quite a ways into the field,and I believe every farmer knew that. Themulberry especially has a very distinct coloredroot. It’s yellowish in color. And thecottonwood isn’t hard to identify, either. Andwe simply came off from a medium-sizedcanal and dug out into a field that was notactively being plowed, that had been there foran X time, but there was seepage or somethingin that area. Oh, they would go out 200-, 300yards into the field. In other words, the feederroots, the tree with its brace roots in the canalor in the bank, but the feeder roots would justkeep on going, even though it had probably areasonable supply of water right here.

Simonds: Did you ever do any comparative studies as towas the loss of water from the vegetation–

Bowser: The transpiration.

Simonds: The transpiration, yeah. Did you do any studyto see if, by removing the vegetation, was there

87


a more or less loss of water throughevaporation?

“. . . the ditch bank vegetation. The basic theory,of course, was that it’s a canal for irrigation, andwhen they become incompatible, then one has to

go. . . .”

Bowser: No, that was never considered with the ditchbank vegetation. The basic theory, of course,was that it’s a canal for irrigation, and whenthey become incompatible, then one has to go.

Simonds: I guess what I’m saying is, the shading of thetrees would have prevented a certain amount ofevaporation.

Bowser: Obviously.

Simonds: Was the trade-off–

Bowser: Of course, that is always affected by thevolume of wind and the ripple on the water, butit probably would be mitigated there becausethe level of the water was probably Xinches/feet below the bank. So unless the windwas blowing parallel with the canal, it’sdoubtful if there would have been much roilingof the water of the water and tremendousevaporation. There would have been

88


considerable, but by the same token, the plantitself was transpiring into the atmosphere.

Wanted to Understand Water Use andTranspiration by Phreatophytes

But in that vein, where we ran intoanother problem, was how much water istranspired by phreatophytes–i.e., salt cedar.

Cooperated with USGS on a Study of Salt CedarWater Use

And that is where, I think I mentioned in aprevious discussion, that, in cooperation withthe Geological Survey, we established anumber of hydroponic-like tanks out in theBuckeye area and then seeded them with saltcedar, measured the water in, and that way wewere able to determine the amount ofevapotranspiration. And that was significant. That would range all the way from 5 to 11acre-feet per year.

Dr. T. E. A. van Hylckama and Tommy RobinsonPublished the Results of the Salt Cedar Study

Now, that’s a study that’s availablethrough Geological Survey’s papers. I did notwrite the technical aspect of it. A doctor didthat, Dr. T. E. A. van Hylckama, and then a

89


man by the name of Tommy Robinson, and heis deceased. But van Hylckama could still bein the Tempe area. He was a very dynamicman who graduated in engineering,engineering science in Europe, took his firstjob in some place in Africa, and then went tothe Far East and was captured by the Japaneseand spent four years in a prisoner of war camp,and then came to the United States and washired by Geological Survey. He was in chargeof the evapotranspiration phreatophyte study. It was pretty well studied, and pretty wellproven that the trees took up an awful lot ofthat water. Riverbed, yes. Canal bank,negligible study on it. I would doubt if there isany.

Simonds: So most of these studies were conducted alongnatural streams or–

Bowser Was Interested in the Academic Side ofSalt Cedar While in Region 5 (Amarillo) They

concentrated their efforts on Control

Bowser: Flood plains. That’s where we wereconcentrating, in flood plains. I do not believethat New Mexico, Region 5, did–they workedmore on control. They’d already decided saltcedar’d have to go. Whereas, I don’t know, Igot off more on the academic side of it, howmuch water do these plants use? If you were

90


interested, I still have copies of all that stuff, soI can abstract that for you without anydifficulty.

Simonds: That might be interesting. So only, except forwhen conditions were just so, the evaporationwasn’t as big a factor in terms of water loss asthe trees and the vegetation–

Bowser: Nuisance value of the tree. The nuisance of thetree outweighed that other consideration.

Simonds: It did.

“. . . the time had come just to go the next step toa line[d] canal. . . .”

Bowser: Well, you just couldn’t have them there with aline canal. And the space. Space also becamea factor here, because you moved the samequantity of water down a much less formed,shaped, line[d] canal than this nice little thingthat was, not meandering, but with dirt banksand eroded and less maintenance, and the timehad come just to go the next step to a line[d]canal.

Simonds: So, was that the primary drive behind theremoval of the vegetation was to line thecanals?

91


Bowser: Yes.

Simonds: It wasn’t as much a water loss issue as it wasto–

Maintenance Played a Part in the Decision toRemove Vegetation along the Canals

Bowser: It was a factor, but not the major factor. Maintenance would be probably the big thing,because they must have spent a lot of moneyon maintenance because some places youcouldn’t even get in to a canal. You’ll see thatif you look at those pictures in the museum.

Using 2,4-D to Control Vegetation

Simonds: Previously we talked a little bit aboutenvironmental concerns. You had stated thatyou were some of the earlier users of, I believe,the 2,4-D type of chemicals.

Bowser: No one knew. The Dow Chemical Company,the other large chemical companies, AmericanChemical groups, had developed this productthat would translocate, through a foliar spraywould translocate, disrupt the metabolism ofthe plant, the roots would rot away, and thewhole plant would die, and that was given thename 2,4-D. The 2,4,5T came in a little later

92


and was primarily used, was the Agent Orangein Vietnam.

2,4-D Wasn’t Studied Much Before Marketing

No real consideration was given,outside of the, by today’s standards, would be arather skimpy study by whoever the regulatoryfederal agency was at the time. And oh, yes,it’s going to be a benefit. Yes. Does it hurtanybody? No, our studies indicate that it doesnot. Okay, market it. And there was an instantmarket. It was very, very successful. And thebig chemical companies pushed it with vigorbecause it was available, the farmers wanted it. But since that time, the whole thing hasmushroomed into a tremendous big businessbased on this same general philosophy, buthave modified the ingredients to fit theparticular soybean, corn, wheat, andeverything, and brought out other products, ofcourse. It would almost take a chemist to keepup with what comes out every year or twoyears.

Issues with 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T as Herbicides

There probably were hazards that wedidn’t even know about, although it wouldappear that there were no, or few, hazards fromthe 2,4-D. But the 2,4,5-T, then we get into a

93


little different ball game, apparently, and I’mnot sure they ever proved or disproved whatthe problem was in Vietnam. Was it achemical product? Was it a reaction to thechemical by the troops that allegedly weresprayed? And how about the individuals whowere Vietnamese that must have been in therewith probably less protection than our militaryforces? I never even hear about it anymore.

Simonds: Essentially Agent Orange was being usedalong the canals and stuff?

Bowser: Not so much, but quite a little bit of 2,4,5-Twas used in the flood plains to spray. Ofcourse now, there shouldn’t have been verymany people in the flood plains. As far as Iknow, it was totally uninhabited, and theysprayed it on judiciously, probably much betterthan the military did, because by that time wehad helicopters and airplanes, and we had somerestrictions. You don’t fly this when the windis beyond this and that. And then we watchedthe drift, because we were cognizant thatdrifting of 2,4-D over a cotton field was ataboo. Now, apparently a little bit of it wouldstimulate the growth, but it didn’t take much togo beyond stimulus, and then you would haveactual. . . And I shouldn’t wonder but in someareas we probably damaged the cottonunknowingly, and the farmer didn’t recognize

94


it, the university didn’t recognize yet. But itdidn’t take long. It was only a matter of a fewyears and the hazards of it become well knownand well publicized.

Concern about the Environmental Consequencesof Herbicide Use

Simonds: You had mentioned in our previous talk thatyou had some concern about the environmentalconsequences of using those chemicals, but–

Bowser: Oh, there always has to be. Always has to be. Like when you take a pill–and you see moreand more of it–what is going to be my responseto that? I know of no studies where theystudied field mice that could have beenexposed to it. I never have heard that. Theyprobably ingested it, and probably in alaboratory they took white mice and fed them2,4-D. In fact, one man dramatically drank aportion of 2,4-D-laced water at a conference inthe east someplace, and that’s harmless. Thatkind of belayed the fears to that group, at least,and I’ve never heard anything since that saidthat–although 2,4-D, I don’t believe, is used–it’s used widely, but by licensed applicators. You can still buy it, though, at WalMart andplaces like that in concentration for garden use,so it’s not something that is absolutely

95


dangerous. It has to be used judiciously. That’s about all you can say.

Simonds: Back to the social aspects. Did you feel or getany indication that the removal of thevegetation and the trees and so forth had anytype of a social impact on the area?

Bowser: No, outside of the wind, increased wind, andthe visual. Just the general, “Well, isn’t thattree pretty? Isn’t it nice to have shade?” Thattype. But I don’t believe there was really anyorganized social use outside the kidsswimming in the canals, and it was certainlymore picturesque for the kid to be swimming ina canal with trees on than in a sterile concretebathtub.

Simonds: Was there ever any problem with wildlife orfish in the canals?

Fishing in the Canals

Bowser: No. In fact, fishing was rather–that might havebeen the largest social function of those earlycanals. There obviously were fish in there. I’ve seen them fish. I do not know what theywere catching. Probably sunfish, carp. Certainly not a trout or anything like that. Awarm-water, bottom-feeding carp, possibly.

96


Simonds: So there was no effort to keep fish out of thecanals?

Bowser: No, I don’t believe. But there wasn’t really ahabitat, either, because the poor fish would godown, and he’d be out in the field pretty quick. And the lining, of course, was the bank. Idoubt if there was much of a place that theycould hide, so to speak. But in the largercanals, I wouldn’t doubt.

“I don’t recall ever seeing anybody fishing in asmaller canal. They were always along the main

canals . . .”

I don’t recall ever seeing anybody fishing in asmaller canal. They were always along themain canals, and whether they were catchinganything. . . You fish lots of times just to getaway, and sometimes you don’t bait the hook,even. (Laughter.)

Simonds: Just an excuse to be out in the countrysomewhere.

Shifting gears here a little bit. Whenwe spoke last, during one of our breaks youshowed me a letter. This is to do with thetrespass along the lower Colorado River.

97


Bowser: We had a trespasser on the east side of theColorado River in the vicinity of Blythe, and itwas my job to go down and tell that man thathe was occupying the land illegally and that hewould have to vacate. He was ratherbelligerent, but I was able to not convince himnecessarily, but to tell him the position of thegovernment, and he, in strong terms, expressedhis position, too, but that was contrary.

“. . . regional director received a letter from theassistant United States attorney . . . said that, ‘I

talked to Mr. So-and-So, and he was non-cooperative and made certain veiled threats-like,and I would suggest that if Curtis Bowser goes

into that area to talk to him on this subject, that heforewarn or ask the U.S. marshal to go along. . . .’”

I thought it was settled, and thensuddenly the regional director received a letterfrom the assistant United States attorney in, Ithink, Los Angeles–well, yes, it would have tobe Los Angeles, because this was California–and said that, “I talked to Mr. So-and-So, andhe was non-cooperative and made certainveiled threats-like, and I would suggest that ifCurtis Bowser goes into that area to talk to himon this subject, that he forewarn or ask the U.S.marshal to go along.” I’ll give you a copy ofthat. I still have that.

98


Simonds: Oh, I don’t need the copy. But I was curious. The person who was writing the letter seemedto, perhaps in a humorous vein, express someconcern for his safety or the safety of othersinvolved in that. Was this case an exception oryou found this in a lot of cases?

Bowser: No. It would be typical of the more volatiletype trespasser. But this one more or lessbubbled over the top, and I thought it was–Inever gave it a first thought, because many ofthem were more, more what?–louder. (Laughter.)

Simonds: So this type of threat wasn’t really uncommonwith regards to that work.

Bowser: Nah. I imagine many people in governmentget that, “Damn dumb government people. They all have to go someplace.”

END OF SIDE 1, TAPE 1. OCTOBER 1, 1999.BEGIN SIDE 2, TAPE 1. OCTOBER 1, 1999.

Simonds: I thought that was rather interesting. I couldimagine that a lot of people had a lot of theirlives spent in those areas and that they wouldhave been very upset.

Bowser: Yes. You can visualize that we had somepeople down along the river below Yuma that,

99


in court, I believe, he said, “I do not like whatthis attorney has said, that that was not myhome. I was born there. I went there everynight after school. It was known as my home. I was mid-life before I realized that we didn’town the land. So it was my home.”

Simonds: Were there any efforts or cases where the landwas able to be purchased by the residents oranything?

There Was No Provision for Trespassers to Buythe Land Involved

Bowser: No. No, there was no provisions by the UnitedStates, either through the Bureau of LandManagement or the Bureau of Reclamationregulations to offer that for sale.

Trespass Removal on the Colorado River belowParker Dam Was Moved from Reclamation over to

Bureau of Land Management Where it Was Directly Supervised by the Secretary of the

Interior

However, in later years, when it came apparentthat the program was going to take atremendous effort, it was removed fromReclamation and went to the Bureau of LandManagement, primarily the Bureau of LandManagement, but directly directed out of the

100


secretary’s office. But they worked more withthe Bureau of Land Management than with us,which was proper, because I was the only landsman and the rest were engineers, and theycould give a tinker’s darn about it. So it waslogical. And the Secretary of the Interiorappointed a man by the name of Hollister, andthey set up a Yuma office.

River Meandering, Evulsion and Accretion

And then we ran into this very, verytechnical problem of river meandering andwhat happens to a ownership. Now, hold inmind that many of these trespassers had a bonafide, full fee-simple title to a parcel of land. Not all of them. Probably two-thirds of themalways had. That’s of the agricultural groups. The squatter in a summer house had nothing, ofcourse.

And then the river shifted–boom. Okay. You have the theories, recognized bylaw, of evulsion and accretion, where you loseand you gain and so and so. So the Land UseOffice, then, said, “God, we can fight aboutthis forever. Let us just take this and you giveus that and we’ll give you that, and we squareyour field up. We get what we want, andeverybody is happy.” And that was wellreceived, and they settled many, many cases in

101


those veins. Because what would you do? You could litigate and litigate and litigate. And I have never heard of one that didn’t panout successfully. I imagine we lost on someand gained on others, but the Land Use Officewas happy, the owner was happy, the riverchannel was happy, and I’ve never heard a–maybe Bob Brose. I’ll ask old Bob if he everheard anything more about any of them. Butthe channel was in, the river was stable, sothere was no more opportunity for them toclaim additional lands or have an objection. Itwas settled, signed, sealed, title given in court.

Simonds: So once the levy work and channelization workwas completed, the problem of accretion andevulsion really kind of disappeared.

Bowser: But those folks still may have been bothered byit, pre-channelization and had a right, andthat’s where we brought in to play a man bythe name of John McCuen [phonetic], StanFreeland [phonetic], and a counterpart in theBureau of Land Management. Our mantestified, along with the Bureau of LandManagement man, and worked closely in courtwith the Land Use Office in Yuma and theReclamation engineer–engineers, in this case–and the Bureau of Land Management engineer. They were all engineers, so they got alongwonderful. They would argue among

102


themselves, “Well, what way is it?” It seemslike you could go any way you wanted, prettynear, within some–oh, well, what the heck. We’re coming out all right, so here we go.

Simonds: So there were really kind of two classes oftrespass cases? There were the ones that dealtwith–

The Two Classes of Trespass below Parker Dam

Bowser: Yes, two classes–recreation, and thenagricultural based.

Simonds: I was kind of seeing it as you had yoursquatters, and then you had–

Bowser: They could be the same.

Simonds: They could be the same?

Bowser: Yeah, agriculture and recreation.

Simonds: You talked about those who had legitimatetitle, fee title. Was that trespass in regard to, asthe river meandered and you got evulsion andaccretion, and then trespassing on to newlands.

Bowser: Oh, yes. There was obviously lands that wehad no claim whatsoever to in part of their

103


field, maybe up to a fence line. But then,“Well, when we’re level here, why don’t wejust go on out a little ways?”

Simonds: They were just more extending their reach outa little beyond their actual–

Bowser: What they legitimately had a legal claim to. Now, the residential land, he only had a littlearea, maybe 100 by 200, but he was in there bythe droves. Now, the typical residentialtrespass was from Parker Dam, south to Parker. Building the dam, the man said, “I’ve got a job. Where do I live?”

I got a feeling that the project engineer,“Oh, go find a place and live.”

Where? There wasn’t anything inParker. Not anything in Needles. “Well, Iguess I’ll just take and put a tent down.” So heput a tent down someplace along the nice river,four miles or two miles downstream, of course,from the dam.

Pretty soon, “I’ve got a job someplaceelse.” Here’s a new man. “I’ll sell it to you for‘X’ dollars, fifty-, ten.” There wasn’t muchthere, I would assume.

104


“But how do I know I’m gettinganything?”

“I’ll give you a quit claim deed. Whatever right, title, and interest I have in this,I hereby transfer to Mr. Joe Simonds.” Signedby Dave.

Well, some of those were recorded. And maybe that went through two or three ofthose, and a guy who didn’t understand whatthe quit claim deed said, “Well, I’ll put a littlebetter house here.” Now, those houseswere–don’t misunderstand me–the werehabitable, but they weren’t majestic. (Laughter.)

“My job at one time was to select five typicalcases, one residential, four agricultural, because

all of the residentials did not total probably one ofthe big farms . . .”

And then we came along. My job atone time was to select five typical cases, oneresidential, four agricultural, because all of theresidentials did not total probably one of thebig farms, because we’re talking about severalhundred acres in the big farms. I picked one atYuma, one at Blythe, and one at Needles, andone in the Cibola Valley, and a residential manbetween Parker Dam and Parker, Arizona, on

105


the California side. Pathetic. Wish I’d knownhuman nature better.

So we took them to court. The man onthe California side, the residential one, first thewoman captured me one day and said, “Whatwill ever happen to my quail and my birds thatI have to feed here?” Quite concerned. Sohere we entered into court, and they had amediocre lawyer, and walked in with a son. First, the man was in Levi pants or coveralls. The woman was in a calico dress, a son in amilitary Marine uniform, and I’ve forgottenwhat the other son looked like.

And we heard it and heard it andpresentation, and pretty soon the judge calledthem up to the bench and he said, “I havesympathy for you. I would stretch the law tothe utmost. But you have no title to that land. Case dismissed.” There was nothing there thatindicated they had any vestige of a legal rightto occupy the land.

I think I mentioned to you, I was up andtalked to a man in Nevada, one of the olderfamilies in Nevada, a little piece of land, quiteinsignificant piece of land, not much biggerthan a residential area. I said, “You have notitle. You have no right in here.” But I got alecture that, I think he was the third generation

106


that had occupied that land. I speak lots oftimes before I think, and I said, “You know, inreality, sir, a colored boy in New York City, inHarlem (I think I used the word Harlem), hasthe same right to this land as you have,” and Ileft right then. (Laughter.)

Simonds: He mentioned he was a third generation.

Bowser: That had used the land.

Simonds: On that particular parcel of land.

Sponsored a Cadastral Survey Because theTrespass Cases Were Complicated by

Unsurveyed Areas

Bowser: He may, in all fairness, never have known thatit wasn’t–remember, some of this land wasunsurveyed. That was also a problem. So oneof the earliest things that we did was have acadastral surveyor come in and re-establish thecorners and bring them out, establish a survey,period. The previous surveys were clear back,oh, gosh, in the eighties, nineties, maybe up to1920. And they were, “We’re not going downthere in the river. We’re out here in the hills.” And if they did establish–and undoubtedly theydid in some cases–the river said, “What’s thislittle stake doing here? I’m going to take youto Yuma.”

107


Simonds: The reason he said three generations–

Bowser: Oh, it probably was.

Simonds: How long had some of these trespasses been–

Bowser: I imagine that had gone on for maybe whenLas Vegas was a nothing, probably notanything there. Some of those families camehere. My understanding is that the Salt Lakepeople moved south, establishing St. George,Cedar City, moved into the Las Vegas area,and I would assume that it became just part ofthis man’s what he occupied, and he probablywas an early homesteader there, or at least hegot title to it someplace along the line since thefirst one sat down there, and probably ahomestead. I never did check that, don’t reallyknow.

Simonds: Do the same laws that apply to other lands withregards to adverse possession–

“No adverse possession against the United StatesGovernment. . . .”

Bowser: No adverse possession against the UnitedStates Government.

108


Simonds: On the federal land. So they could not claimright by time of occupation as they could onother lands?

Bowser: If I could move on your back porch, in yourgarage there, and you said, “Oh, that’s all right,Curt.” Then down the road your son comesback from college or he’s now married, forty-five years and I’m still there, I say, “Well, hell,your dad let me have this, and I’ve been here Xyears, whatever the state law is. I think I’ll juststay.”

Simonds: And indeed he can.

Bowser: Yeah. Within some margins, he has a claim. Iwould not want to profess what extent thatclaim is, but I got a little toehold.

Simonds: Those type laws, they don’t apply on federal. No claim of right by time of occupation. And Isuppose that a lot of the folks believed thatthey had a right based on that.

Mining Claims and Reclamation

Bowser: Oh, yes, because that’s a common verbiageamong lands people, adverse possession. Andthen there’s the mining claim phases of it, thatyou go out and stake a mining claim and youthink through the years that you should have a

109


right. But we squeezed out many of thosebecause they did not follow that fine print bysaying, “Each X period of time you are to put ahundred dollars’ worth of assessment work bydigging a hole or prove up that you have amarketable mineral or whatever the productis,” and they didn’t do that. So those weresqueezed out in coarse terms, or terminatedwould be the proper term, in ab initio–in otherwords, failure to perform. And, we squeezedout many of those.

Researching and Resolving Mining Claims onReclamation Land

I think I perhaps told you before thatWest was over in Las Vegas at one time at aRotary meeting, and jokingly or otherwise,Cashman, which is the Cadillac dealer overthere, told him, “I’m going to develop myclaim in Lake Mead, my dad’s mining claim.” I don’t know whether A. B. West was homeyet or not, but some guy by the name of CurtBowser was getting laced about, “What do youknow about mining claims in Lake Mead?”

I said, “Nothing.”

“Well, you better get on it and find outabout this claim.”

110


“‘These files not closed. Going to war.’” . . .

So I went down to the dam and wentthrough their archives, and I came to a file. Itwas dated about 1942 or maybe even ‘41. I’veforgotten the man’s name now. And therewere about eleven of them, a small stack ofmanilla file folders, with their little tabs andnames up on the corners. “These files notclosed. Going to war.” Signed his name. They were there. Cashman was one of those,and we squeezed him out under this ab initio.

Simonds: Based on it had never been worked.

Bowser: Right. I’ve often wondered what claim theywould have had if they would have said, “Hell,man, we can’t get to it. It’s under the water.” Idon’t know. I never researched that to knowwhat their–

Simonds: Now, where there any cases involving–and Ineed to make sure I’m clear on theterm–inholdings? And if I understand that,that’s privately held land within an area offederal ownership.

Bowser: Yes. But not as pronounced as it is today. That was the responsibility of the acquisitionmen to squeeze those out in the case ofReclamation–i.e., underneath or adjacent to the

111


reservoir within 200 feet back from the highwater line or whatever they established.

Defining High Water Line

There is some question of where is thehigh water line when you come to a bluff. Well, I took the position–and I don’t knowwhether it was my position or an engineer’sposition. Probably somebody told me what itshould be, and I adopted it and I said, “Okay,you come to the water line. You set a staff,and then you go up here, on top of the hill, yougo back 200 feet,” or whatever the figure was.

“But the water will never get here, butI’m closer than 200 feet.”

“No, you don’t have any claim to that.” Nothing was ever challenged, because it waswithin reason.

But to answer your question moredirectly, we never had that problem, becausethere were supposedly no–but you intervieweda man whose father had one–that had noinholdings that should not have beenextinguished.

But one time a man, funny little man,looked like Hobo Joe, but terrific man, asked

112


me to look into a claim that his relative hadasked him about, and I’m assuming he had aninterest in it, in the Cibola National WildlifeRefuge. I looked into it and told him what itwas, and we’ve never heard a thing since. It’squite possible that you have interviewed thatgentleman, Mr. Clifford Pugh.

Simonds: I believe that he’s been interviewed, yeah.

Bowser: Yes. Maybe you did not.

Simonds: I didn’t, no, but I know who he is.

Bowser: I’d be interested to see his transcript to see ifhe did mention that. I would assume he hadnot, because he didn’t give a tinker’s darn, andI don’t imagine his heir–or not his heir, but hisrelative, and I do not remember even–distanteven then, that’s all I can remember–pressed itanyway. It’s entirely possible it has slippedthrough the cracks and there would be there,but it would be virtually impossible to find atthis date.

But I had one. In fact, I had several, butonly one that really sticks out, and then I wouldlike to go back to this other one. A man passedaway who had a claim of some type, but notvery good, possibly a mining claim, in the areaabove Parker Dam, on the Arizona side, near a

113


gravel pit that we have that was used in theconstruction of Parker Dam. He passed away,and his wife brought an attorney, and I met herin Parker one time with her brother-in-law or ason, and we went up there. They didn’t knowwhere it was, so we just drove through thearea. And then later, when I was in LosAngeles, I met with her in her attorney’s office,and he had left some papers in his personaleffects that he had a claim to land up there. They were no more than prudent. They werelooking to see what it was.

She was a wonderful woman, like mymother, and she was old enough at that time tohave been my mother. I remember she wore anice dress, and had a nice car in Parker, too. Iadmired that big car. And the attorney was thesame age, and family friend, probably, and helistened and called her by name, and “I don’tthink we have anything. We thank you forparticipating.” That was the end of it.

And the same way. I had another manthat came in one day, “I worked here onHoover Dam. I had a lot of free time, and Iwas interested in mining and I prowled the areaup above Gold Strike.” And he was prettyclever. He wouldn’t tell me exactly. Hewouldn’t show me on a map where it was. I’veoften wondered how I flubbed that. “But in

114


this area.” Well, that only took in above fivesquare miles. And “I’d like to go in there andget some of that, because it had color in it.”

Now, that was not uncommon, becauseGold Strike, evidently, had had some rumors orsomebody had salted an area or something. But I don’t believe it was salted. I think thereactually was a color of gold in there. Where itcame from? And it was not in place. It hadbeen transported-type gold. And so it has to beup someplace above, and the only things thatindicate that it should come from above isabout the area that he was circling.

He was crestfallen when he left, but Iunderstand he–his health was broken even atthat time, but it was the last straw, and I guess Ihelped–I didn’t improve his health outlook, Idon’t imagine, but I had no choice. It wasReclamation withdrawn at the time, not open tomining, and it was still Reclamationwithdrawn.

Protection and Security Zone at the Dams

In fact, part of what he was looking at was aprotection and security zone around the dam.

Now, you might ask, what’s protectionand security? When the Lake Mead National

115

6. See footnote on page 33.


Recreation Area Act was passed,6 West wasjumping up and down, “What are we going tokeep?” Off record now. Obviously, you didnot want another agency taking half of thedam, very concisely put. So just for protectionand for security. And engineering staff helped. I’m not sure that I even drew a line. I didn’t. Ijust watched over somebody’s shoulder, andprobably a second down from Shanklin[phonetic] or from Bob, Bob Brose’s firsthandman.

We said, “Well, that’s kind of hilly inthere. Let’s come in a little closer.” And we’ddraw the line down the section line.

“This is pretty flat out in here. Let’scome out. Let’s jig out here about a half a mileand then down, down. Let’s go on down herethrough Parker or down here through LakeMohave, down to Davis Dam. We ought tohave a little bit below the dam. Up, up, up, up,up, up, up, back around.” And that is excludedfrom the Lake Mead National Recreation Area.

So they do not have any–it’s a littlehard to define now. They do not have any rightto go onto that land and build something or doany activity up there. But when you get on the

116

7. See footnote on page 33.


water, now you’ve got a little different thingthat was never considered in the protection andsecurity, because they manage it and youwouldn’t want to say, “You can’t come belowthis line.” So it’s a fuzzy area there, and Idon’t know, in a national security area,obviously we would have to keep somethingabove the dam. You’d have to put a barrier orsomething. But that was never a consideration. It was just the outline, the border, theextremities of the land that was not a recreationarea–it’s a protection and security zone.

Park Service Wanted a Smaller Protection andSecurity Zone than Reclamation Developed

Outside of Mr. Ritchie [phonetic], whotried to get me to bring that line smaller,naturally, and West told me to hold firm, and Iguess he probably called West and West heldfirm. I like the Park Service. I always gotalong with them well. But that was it. Hecalled me even a day before the bill was signedin whenever it was, ‘65 I think,7 and “No, I’msorry. A. B. West says hold tight.”

Simonds: And it was really a matter of just Reclamationwanting to maintain some control overelements.

117


Bowser: Well, not so much control. We really don’tcare if they take tours out there or not, and Idon’t think we would even object if they wouldcome and work out an agreement to use it. Idon’t think there’d be any problem, with theunderstanding that if some future date whichwe cannot foresee, I’m sorry, this is going tobe a fence around here or armed guards. See,we had that during that World War II. You didnot cross the dam without a convoy. You hadto be in a convoy, with your windows rolledup, and a soldier in the lead car and probably avehicle behind, and you scooted across. Andthen we had pill boxes. I never did haveanything to do with that, except the pill boxesare still visible. At that time, it wasconceivable that it could be used, would beused or could be used, so it was a logicalprotection and security zone, just a fence, aninvisible fence.

Issues Regarding Inholdings

But going back to this other. Therewere no inholdings as we’re speaking today,where a group of farsighted people, sharpies,have picked land within the wildlife refuge ontop of a hill that had a–

END OF SIDE 2, TAPE 1. OCTOBER 1, 1999.BEGIN SIDE 1, TAPE 2. OCTOBER 1, 1999.

118


Bowser: I think, if you talk to Stan [Seigal] sometime,you’ll find that a man by [the name of]Chapman is now wrestling with them, and he’sgoing to build a house.

“You have no objection to me flyingover with a helicopter with an I-beam on it, doyou sir?”

“Well, there’s no way I can stop you.”

And there are wealthy people in theUnited States who would love to have a, goingback ninety years now, or fifty years, a placecalled Eagle Nest. That was very hard to getto, where a man by the name of Hitlerallegedly committed suicide in some far-offcountry. And there are people who wouldrelish having a house that you couldn’t get toexcept by helicopter, and it’s not too far-fetched.

Simonds: You mentioned Chapman, and I believe he’spretty known in the Colorado region for gettingtitle to some of these in-holding areas and thenthreatening to bulldoze roads throughwilderness areas to gain access to it. And hiswhole thing is that he finally was able to forcethe Park Service or Forest Service orsomebody to purchase the land from him forsome inflated price in order to protect the–

119


Bowser: In fact, I met a woman once, an executive. . .One of my best friends in the land business,working for the Bureau of Land Management,was a man by the name of Roy Helmendollar[phonetic]. We’re approximately the same age,retired about the same time, and he asked me,“Would you be interested in a job with theArizona/New Mexico or the NewMexico/Arizona Land Company.” Somebodytold me the other day that that’s part of the oldPage [phonetic] Land Company, but thatdoesn’t mean anything.

I had lunch with her one day, and hewent to work for them, and that was what theywere doing. They were primarily protectingtheir own interests in these wildlife refuges andeverything that was being established at thattime, but I understood that they did expand intogetting other lands, inholdings, and buyingthem. And you could buy them quitereasonably at one time and just hold on.

Property Rights

We are entering into a new phase of,any piece of property has a bundle of rights, abunch of pencils in a bowl, and that total bowlis called full fee simple title. Reclamation,through a man by the name of Jay S[phonetic]–I guess you know him–he comes by

120


and he buys one bundle. But he is notsupposed to take parts of the other bundles. Itgoes way back in state laws that the bigrancher no longer can go in and take the spring,fence it, and keep the people out. He has toown that, and then it gets pretty hairy here. Somany times he didn’t even own it. Hemanaged the water, and no one else could getin.

It’s ironic now that people like that, butthe new generation is thinking, “Well, youdamaged some of my rights.” Now, this isgoing to go to the Supreme Court, and Texashas already moved into it other rights. Ibelieve the problem has been that theenvironmentalist has moved too rapidly bysaying–the test case is California, on a lumberyard, where the environmentalist wanted a roaddown through this man’s property to get to astream. The road was for public use. The mansaid, “I have no problem with that, but I oughtto be compensated.”

They said, “No compensation,” andthey worked with the local government, andthey wouldn’t give him a permit to expand hisbusiness until he gave this road up. So thatwas blackmail. That is not the one that will goto the Supreme Court, but one of these otherswill, quite similar to that. And I believe the

121


landowner is going to win, just on thisconstitutional equality of the straws in thebundle of rights.

Trespass Cases

Simonds: The trespass cases, the residential ones, thelands, the areas where these people weretrespassing or squatting, were they good lands,were they marginal lands?

Bowser: The agriculture or the residential?

Simonds: The residential.

Bowser: No. Rocky, nice, twenty feet above the water,near the water’s edge, upstream from the road,or uphill from the road. Every place.

Simonds: Aside from the fact they were trespassing onfederal lands, what would have been theobjection to allowing them to potentiallypurchase those lands?

Bowser: I don’t know. Probably no, except you wouldhave had to give them priority. And thensomeone would have said, “Why did they get apriority to buy?” You always run into that.

The decision was made at thesecretarial level they ought to go, and that was

122


the general consensus of just about everybody–except the occupants. Even the countygovernments, at least behind the scenes, werevery supportive of it, because there was no taxbase. The turnover, they were no longerassociated with the Reclamation program in theParker area, and they were, shall we say,possibly deteriorating in the type of individualthat was occupying. Some were very, very,almost wealthy people, and others were just,“I’m occupying this house.” It probably wasabandoned when they moved in, and they got ajob and they were not paying any rent and theywere becoming prosperous. Not prosperous,but they were living. Remember, this would bein the fifties.

BLM’s Land Use Office Handled the TrespassCases

There’s a whole record of this phase ofit, this Land Use Office part. That’s a wholebig chapter of Bureau of Land Management’sfunction out of the, generally you might say outof the Phoenix office, but not reporting to thePhoenix office, reporting to the Secretary ofthe Interior. It was neither drummed up–it wasproposed to the Secretary. It was adopted bythe Secretary. It was enforced by theSecretary.

123


Simonds: How many cases were there of this trespass,the residential?

Bowser: Oh, you’d have to get the exact number. I cankind of probably–or leave a blank there. Butjust in talking, I would say between 200 and300.

Simonds: That many?

Bowser: Yes.

Simonds: And those were the residential?

Bowser: Those were the residential.

Simonds: And how many of the agricultural type?

Bowser: Probably between forty and sixty.

Simonds: So the residential, although the tracts beingsignificantly smaller–

Bowser: Some, they didn’t even claim more than justenough to get their carport up and maybe achicken coop back behind.

Simonds: But there were quite a few of them?

The Majority of the Residential Trespass CasesWere on the Colorado River Between Parker and

124


Head Gate Rock Dams–Primarily on the CaliforniaSide of the River

Bowser: There were quite a few of them, primarilycentered. . . Ninety percent of them were inthat ten-mile strip or fourteen-mile strip fromParker Dam to Head Gate Rock Dam aboveParker, Arizona, both on the Arizona andCalifornia side, primarily on the California sidebecause the Arizona road didn’t go in at anearly date.

The Many Trespass Cases below Parker DamApparently Stemmed from a Need for Housing

During Construction of the Dam

Simonds: Why do you think that area attracted so many?

Bowser: I have to go back to this construction engineer,“Oh, go find a house someplace. Don’t bogme. I don’t care where you live.” And even tothe extent that, “You know, other people areliving down there in tents. We’ll be nice toyou. We’re not going to say anything to you.” I never participated in those discussions, and Inever tried to learn what he did say, because itwas immaterial. Those same people were not–I would assume there wasn’t 1 percent of thepeople who ever worked on the dam were

125

8. Notice to vacate a property.


there at the time of the vacation notices,8 and itcould be zero.

Simonds: It was something that grew out of theconstruction of the dam and the works on theriver.

Bowser: Where were these people to live? It was, Iwouldn’t want to quite say a failure, but itcertainly wasn’t an employee/employerrelationship that provided houses. It just said,“If you get here to the gate, you’ll get in andyou’ll get a paycheck, and where you live iskind of up to you.”

Simonds: They didn’t construct camps or anything else? Like here in Hoover, there’s–

Bowser: Yes, there were for some workers.

Simonds: There were?

Bowser: There were, is my understanding. And therecertainly was at Davis, but we never had that. Idon’t know. You got beyond me. I do notknow.

Simonds: You go around, and going back as far as I canrecall to even the very early projects, Newlands

126


Project or Truckee-Carson Project at the time,they built camps and small towns for the–

Bowser: There obviously was a camp at Parker, becausewhen I got here there was a commissary there. I do not recall, but I can just barely visualizeone-room, two-room houses below the dam onthe California side, but they wouldn’t probablytake in the people that were [working] on thedam.

Simonds: It wasn’t sufficient in size?

Bowser: I would think not.

Simonds: And so most of it was holdover from theconstruction period, then?

Bowser: Yeah. And they probably had all left by thattime, so it was just the–

Simonds: It turned over, in some cases, two or three orfour times.

Reclamation and Los Angeles’s Department ofWater and Power Participated in Construction of

Parker Dam

Bowser: Probably so. And I don’t even recall exactly. Now, the dam was–Reclamation played a partin–I’ll look that up. Reclamation played a part

127

9. Parker Dam was constructed by Reclamation with moniesadvanced by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California,of which the City of Los Angeles is a member agency.


in the construction of Parker Dam, but we alsohad the city of Los Angeles’s Department ofWater and Power9 that were the lead. But wewere in on design and all of that, and whatpersonnel we provided, I do not know.

Simonds: And all of these cases were eventuallyresolved? The people were removed from thelands?

Bowser: Yes.

Simonds: How many of them actually did you have tolitigate?

Bowser: Not very many. Now, see, you had the LandUse Office now. I’d been relieved of myresponsibility. I had other responsibilities. This was a staff of maybe three, four GS-equivalent 13s now, maybe a 14, and probablya 15 with Hollister, which would be ScheduleC appointees. And then down from that, therewas probably a staff of ten, fifteen people. Soit was a big operation, and I do not recall that Iever knew how many were litigated. But thisone case that Reclamation litigated, it virtuallybroke the back of the other folks.

128


Simonds: Pretty much set the precedent, and there wasno . . .

Bowser: Set the precedent. So the residential ones wereno longer a major factor in the litigation.

Simonds: How was the removal handled? I mean, werethe people given a certain amount of time tovacate the premises?

Bowser: Oh, yes. They leaned over backwards to themand, “Well, how about Christmas?”

“Oh, we were going anyway.”

And then what was left, things have ahabit of disappearing if they’re not occupied,and I would assume then some crew went byand, “There’s a pile of rubble. Let’s load thaton the truck,” and it was loaded on the truck.

I would say that less than half of 1percent had a foundation. They might havebeen placed on cinder block or stones orsomething like that.

Simonds: But it wasn’t a case of the sheriff shows up atthe door one morning and says, “You’ve gotten minutes to get off the land”?

129


Bowser: No. It never reached that point, to myknowledge.

Simonds: Maybe some individual cases were a littletougher.

Bowser: I imagine there were a few who were a littlereluctant and were threatened. Or if youcouldn’t cajole them into going, maybe theysaid, “You’ve got to or we’re going to have to .. .” I do not know. I didn’t–well, I had noresponsibility there. We cooperated very wellwith Mr. Romeo and Mr. Hollister, but I neverwas–I noticed I was never called in to assist,because there’s nothing I could have done. And my advice, I didn’t have any advice. Ididn’t know.

Simonds: Actually, I’m getting pressed for time at thispoint, unless there’s anything that you’d like toadd or anything that you can think of rightnow.

Bowser: No.

Simonds: This was very good.

Bowser: Did you get most of what you were seeking?

130


Simonds: I think so. Certainly, as I’m driving off to theairport, I will think of it. “Oh, why didn’t Iask?”

Bowser: Now, where am I on the other? I have taken itwith me to Alaska. I took it with me toColorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming. I lookedat it for a few pages. I’m up at page 42. I’llput this transcript with it, and I’ll get theresooner or later.

Simonds: Okay, great. And I’ll just ask you the standardquestion, do you have any objection to folksusing the copies for–

Bowser: No, none whatsoever. Do whatever you want. I understand that if I don’t want it to be used,it’ll be discarded. The only thing I’mconcerned about is, when I read it I say, “MyGod, nobody’s going to read that windyrascal.” It’s not too coherent. It’s not assmooth as it should be.

END SIDE 1, TAPE 2. OCTOBER 1, 1999.END OF INTERVIEWS

ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEWS Curtis W. BowserCURTISW..pdf · transcript is the National Archives and...

Documents

Transcript of ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEWS Curtis W. BowserCURTISW..pdf · transcript is the National Archives and...