Well House

Salt River Project pump houses of the 1920s began with a wooden derrick used to drill a groundwater well, after which an electric pump was installed and the lower half of the derrick was enclosed with wood siding. The Project's first groundwater wells, drilled in 1919, pumped water into ditches for drainage into the nearest river or wash to lower a rising water table caused by irrigation that was damaging crops by bringing salts and other harmful minerals to the surface. When drought struck Arizona in the late 1920s, the Project began using the pumped water for irrigation, a practice that continues today. The Project usually located its wells next to canals and laterals so pumped water could be distributed to irrigation customers.

Glendale, Arizona · United States