The Tempe Irrigating Canal Company

William Kirkland and James McKinney started the first irrigation canal on the south side of the river, which began delivering water to fields in the Tempe area by 1870. Toward the end of the year, many investors and local farmers formed a cooperative organization called the Hardy Irrigating Canal Company to extend the Kirkland-McKinney Ditch. But after a few weeks, the corporation was reorganized as the Tempe Irrigating Canal Company. Farmers could buy a share in the company for $200, which would then entitle them to receive water from the canal to irrigate their fields. However, most members joined by contributing their labor to help build and maintain the canals. Workers received a credit of three dollars a day toward their share in the company; if they brought a team of mules to the work site, they were credited with another four dollars a day.

By 1872, three branches had been extended off of the Kirkland-McKinney Ditch: the Hayden Ditch, which brought water to the site where Hayden's Flour Mill was being built; the Western Branch, which served the area to the southwest; and the Spanish Ditch, which started one and a half miles down the Western Branch and went to the settlement of San Pablo. <p> <p>