Diversity through adversity : Tucson Basin water control since 1854

Abstract

This thesis considers water utilization in the Tucson Basin, Arizona. The study concentrates on the American period of Tucson history from 1854 to 1940, although it includes a chapter examining the physical and cultural setting of the area prior to 1854 and a concluding chapter covering events since 1940. The thesis links Western water development to broad patterns in American history, contrasting earlier treatments which characterize the region as a unique entity due to its arid environment. If the West is different from the humid East, the thesis contends, the reason for the West's distinction occurred not because of aridity but in spite of it. Development patterns in the West are actually quite similar to those in the eastern United States, due mainly to the transplantation of an agrarian myth to the West achieved through technological advances. The result is a society apart from its environment rather than within it.