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[Illustration: Barbara. Often as Barbara sat looking over that greatbasin her heart cried out to know the secret it held.]
THE WINNING OF BARBARA WORTH
BY
HAROLD BELL WRIGHT
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
While this story is not in any way a history of this part of theColorado Desert now known as the Imperial Valley, nor a biography ofanyone connected with this splendid achievement, I must in honestyadmit that this work which in the past ten years has transformed avast, desolate waste into a beautiful land of homes, cities, and farms,has been my inspiration.
With much gratitude for their many helpful kindnesses, I acknowledge myindebtedness to H. T. Cory, F. C. Hermann, C. R. Rockwood, C. N. Perry,E. H. Gaines, Roy Kinkaid and the late George Sexsmith, engineers andsurveyors identified with this reclamation work; to W. K. Bowker,Sidney McHarg, C. E. Paris, and many other business friends andneighboring ranchers among our pioneers; and to William Mulholland,Chief Engineer of the Los Angeles Aqueduct.
I am particularly indebted to C. K. Clarke, Assistant Manager and ChiefEngineer of the California Development Company, and to Allen Kelly,whose knowledge, insight and observations as a journalist and as astudent of Reclamation in the Far West have been invaluable to me.
To my friend, Mr. W. F. Holt, in appreciation of his life and of hiswork in the Imperial Valley, this story is inscribed. H. B. W.
Tecolote Rancho, April 25, 1911.
"Give fools their gold, and knaves their power;
Let fortune's bubbles rise and fall,
Who sows a field, or trains a flower,
Or plants a tree, is more than all."