Centennial Anniversary of the Theodore Roosevelt Dam

Floor Speech

Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, on March 18, 2011, the State of Arizona will celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the Theodore Roosevelt Dam. As that day approaches, I wish to recognize how vital this structure has been in unlocking the tremendous economic potential of my State.

In the arid and often unforgiving desert, the Theodore Roosevelt Dam is the central component and crowning achievement of one of the Nation's first water reclamation projects in the West. In 1903, a group of visionary territorial Arizonans banded together to mortgage their lands as debt collateral for a Federal loan to build the Roosevelt Dam. The dam was completed 8 years later, in 1911, and stood as the world's largest masonry dam of its day. Located on the Salt River, it serves as both a water storage system and hydroelectric facility that supplies electricity, drinking water and irrigation water to the downstream communities of metropolitan Phoenix.

Those original landowners, who in 1903 formed the Salt River Valley Water Users Association, had a vision of what could be. Indeed, Roosevelt Dam nurtured and ultimately transformed the Salt River Valley into what is today. The dam made Phoenix a boom town, and turned the surrounding area into one of fastest-growing regions in the Nation. People came, and with them a strong and vibrant economy grew to attract new businesses fueled by a diverse labor force. Roosevelt Dam literally changed people's ideas about living in the desert. It is a legacy that continues today with the Salt River Project, a power and water utility that continues to provide the infrastructure that feeds the area's economy.

Over the next several decades, the Phoenix area is projected to expand by twice the national rate once again demonstrating the vitality of the community. No other reclamation project in the history of Arizona has stimulated the economic and population boom in the way Roosevelt Dam did once it was completed. For that reason, I am proud to honor its contributions in my State, for the past 100 years and into its next century of service.

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