Gila Bend Arizona, Water Front Property

I have this dream of pumping sea water up from the Gulf of California and flood the Gila River basin from Gila Bend to the Painted Rock dam. Gila Bend is only 735 feet above sea level, and there is a drop of 50 feet from Gila Bend to the Gila River bed at that point. Painted Rock dam has been proven to hold enough water (when there is any to hold) to back water all the way to the shores of Gila Bend.

Since water ALWAYS runs downhill, if our pipeline follows the river beds from the ocean there won't be any mountains to cross and only one pumping station will be required. That makes this plan far more than economically feasible; it becomes politically desirable.

Over 200 miles of water front real estate will be created. Fishing will be enhanced, boating can be encouraged, and on top of all that, rapid evaporation due to intense heat will have RAIN falling regularly in the region.

This huge article about the yesteryear of Gila Bend is well worth your time to visit, even if you've never been through that region.

Here's another sample:

The Gila River turns again after it passes The Fortaleza and heads off and around Arrowhead and then on past Sentinel and Aztec to the Painted Rock dam. Aiming straight from The Fortaleza towards Arrowhead, and just across the bend in the river, there used to be an old windmill where Slick's cows watered. (For that to make sense you have to remember that rivers are dry in Arizona)

At that windmill I found an old toy glass truck, still in one piece and made of depression type glass. The bed used to haul a sack of candy in it when it was new. I would have brought the truck home with me, but Littlie had found a basaltic rock back there around the fortaleza that intrigued him and he said we could take only one or the other, the glass truck that USED TO HAVE candy in it, or a rock that was "still full of possibilities."

Well, I knew which way Littlie was going to vote when he promised we could come back to get the glass truck some other time. So I put it down near the base of the windmill and we carried the rock home with us to the Narramore Ranch headquarters where Littlie lived, him and Biggun.