Fishing in the Grand Canal in 1896, Phoenix, Arizona


Let's go fishing. We can go to the Grand Canal, which has been there since 1885. In my imagination it's 1896, so all we need is a fishing pole, but we could do it IRL (In Real Life) today, in the same canal, but we'd need a fishing license. Oh yeah, and a fishing pole, I don't have one. Can I borrow yours?

Yes, there are fish in the canals of Phoenix, and there always has been. The water comes from the Salt and Verde rivers, which are created by snowmelt up north. And while the water is cleaned up and purified before it's ready to be used in the bathtub, it's still just river water. With fish. And this water has flowed through the Salt River Valley for over 10,000 years, since the end of the last Ice Age.

I've always been fascinated by the canals of Phoenix, and I've followed them from their beginnings to their ends. Grand Canal begins east of the Salt River Pima Indian Community, which is east of Scottsdale, and ends west of the Cardinal's stadium, in Glendale. Well, the canal ends there, but the water continues to flow down the Agua Fria River to Tres Rios, and then into the Gila River, and to the Pacific Ocean, south of Yuma.

Walk with me. I want to sit on the banks of the Grand Canal. Here, I'll carry the fishing pole. Do you have any bait? No? I think there are some worms in my garden, I'll dig around a bit. It's such a beautiful day here, I can't think of anything more peaceful than sitting and fishing. Except for the worm, of course!

Thank you so much for fishing with me on the Grand Canal!
If you liked this article, and would like to see more, please consider becoming a patron of History Adventuring on Patreon. If you're already a patron, thank you! You make this happen!

 Click here to become a Patron!
History adventuring posts are shared there daily. The basic tier is a dollar a month, and the PhD tier, which includes "then and now" photos, billboards, aerials, videos, and super high-definition photos, is five dollars a month, and is discounted for seniors, veterans, and students.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why cars in the future won't need stop signs, red lights, or stripes on the road

Image
Time-travel with me into the future. Where we're going, we'll still need roads, but our cars won't need the kind of stuff that human drivers need, like stop signs, or stuff painted on the road. And if you're already panicking that computers will take over, don't worry, they already have. The fact that you're reading this right now combines so much amazing computing power that it would have been unthinkable to anyone in the 1960s, or '70s, when I was a kid. Speaking of being in the geriatric age group, if you're like me or older, you took a lot of pride in knowing the rules of the road, such as what to do at a stop sign if four cars approach at the same time, the difference between a "yield" sign and a "merge" sign, or maybe how to parallel park. But calm down there old-timer, that type of knowledge will just be as quaint as how to use a horse and buggy is nowadays. Sorry! The best way to picture how traffic will flow in the future is ...
Read more

Watching a neighborhood grow and change in Phoenix, Arizona

Image
I stopped to take a closer look yesterday at where the old Circle K had been in my neighborhood, which is a suburb of Phoenix. And it's got me to thinking about how much Phoenix grows and changes over the years, and how people feel about it. This particular neighborhood was built in the mid 1980s, when there had been only a smattering of houses and a community college (Glendale Community College, built in 1965). There are some houses that I can tell are from the 1970s, and a few even older, but what happened here is that the neighborhood suddenly appeared in 1985 or thereabouts. There are three shopping centers on the corner of 67th Avenue and Peoria - the one in the photo is called "Peoria Station", and it was designed to kinda look like a train station. The other three are called Westporte Village, Brittany Square, and Crossroads Plaza. I've lived in this neighborhood for a very long time, and no one ever uses those names, even though the signs are still up. But the...
Read more

Why did Adolf Hitler always have such a bad haircut?

Image
As someone who has been interested in history since I was a little kid, I've always asked the most childish questions, and quite often never got an answer. As a kid, I was told to run along and play, and don't bother the grownups, so I set my questions aside to work on when I myself became a grownup. But some questions I really haven't found a satisfactory answer for, and get thrown away as I find myself learning the more important stuff. I now understand the grownups, but the kid in me still has childish questions like "Why did Adolf Hitler always have such a bad haircut?" The first question to ask is whether a particular style (whether hair, clothing, etc.) was in style at the time. The moustache was, and you can Google a photo of Charlie Chaplin, who wore the same style of moustache at the time, and quite stylishly. The wide lapels were in style in the 1930s, as was were the tall shirt collars and small ties. But the haircut wasn't - it's just awful. Me...
Read more