The Roland Gail Baker Papers are comprised of correspondence, contracts, notes, newsclippings, reports, printed matter and trial exhibits ranging from 1865-1965. The bulk of the collection concerns Baker's engineering work in water supply and other public works projects from 1944-1960.
Identification:
MSS-19
Language:
Material in English
Repository:
Arizona State University Library. Greater Arizona Collection P.O. Box 871006 Tempe, AZ 85287-1006 Phone: (480) 965-4932 E-Mail: archives@asu.edu Questions? Ask An Archivist!
Biographical Note
A native Arizonan, Roland Gail Baker was born in Phoenix on October 11, 1897. He was the son of Roland Claudius Baker and Lilly Mae Cromb. Between 1919 and 1922 Baker received degrees from the University of Arizona and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1933 he married Barbara Allen Clayton and they had four children.
Baker served in the U.S. Army in 1918 in Tucson. In 1919 he worked for the Pinal County Highway Department as a draftsman and computer. He was draftsman and office engineer for the Santa Cruz County Highway Department in 1920. From 1921 to 1934 he was with the Salt River Valley Water Users Association in several engineering capacities. As design engineer he had direct charge of the design and construction of several Arizona dams, power plants, canals and bridges.
From 1934 to 1935 Baker was Chief Engineer with the Verde Irrigation and Power District. He then went into private business in 1935. From 1936 to 1940 he was in the private sector and served as a consultant to a number of local firms. From 1940 to 1943, Baker was engineer and superintendent of the Water Department, City of Phoenix and in 1944 served as a consultant for the State of Arizona working with the Bureau of Reclamation and making extensive studies of the Colorado River below Lee Ferry. From 1946 to the mid 1950s Baker was Phoenix City Engineer and Chief Engineer for the Arizona Interstate Stream Commission. He resigned his state and municipal appointments due to ill heath and continued in his own engineering firm.
For his outstanding engineering contributions to the State of Arizona, Baker was awarded the Honor Medallion from the College of Engineering, University of Arizona in 1960. R. Gail Baker died in Phoenix on January 4, 1965.
Scope and Content Note
The Roland Gail Baker Papers are comprised of correspondence, contracts, notes, newsclippings, reports, printed matter and trial exhibits dating from 1865 to 1965. The bulk of the collection contains Baker's engineering work in water supply and other public works projects from 1944-1960. The collection has been divided into two series: Arizona Water Supply and City of Phoenix.
The Arizona Water Supply series is composed of a variety of reports, correspondence, notes, etc. related to various aspects of Baker's work in securing water for Arizona from the Colorado River and its tributaries. Most of the pages in the series are research materials in support of the Central Arizona Project and the water rights litigation Arizona vs. California, et. al. Many of the memoranda and reports in the series were written by Perley M. Lewis. A large portion of the Arizona vs. California, et. al. materials are reviews of testimony and published trial exhibits with holograph notations by Perley M. Lewis.
The City of Phoenix series contains material documenting a variety of municipal public works projects and the purchase of local privately-owned water companies by the City of Phoenix. The public works projects include sewer and bridge construction and paving projects.
Arrangement
This collection consists of seventeen boxes divided into two series:
To view this collection, make an appointment at least five business days prior to your visit by contacting Ask an Archivist or calling (480) 965-4932. Appointments in the Wurzburger Reading Room at Hayden Library (rm. 138) on the Tempe campus are available Monday through Friday. Check the ASU Library Hours page for current availability.
Copyright
Arizona State University does not own the copyright to this collection. We recognize that it is incumbent upon the researcher to procure permission to publish information from this collection from the owner of the copyright.
Access Terms
Personal Name(s)
Baker, R. Gail (Roland Gail), 1897-1965.
Debler, Eugene B.
Lewis, Perley M. (Perley Mitchell), 1898-1982.
Meeker, R. I. (Ralph Inman), b. 1878.
Corporate Name(s)
Arizona State Stream Commission.
Central Arizona Project (U.S.).
Salt River Project.
Salt River Valley Water Users' Association.
Subject(s)
Arizona -- Water-supply -- History.
Colorado River (Colo.-Mexico) -- Water rights -- History.
Colorado River Water Conservation Project.
Dams -- Arizona -- Design and construction -- History.
Hydraulic engineering -- Arizona -- History.
Hydraulic engineers -- Arizona -- Archives.
Phoenix (Ariz.) -- Water-supply -- History.
Sewerage -- Arizona -- Phoenix -- History.
Water -- Law and legislation -- Colorado River (Colo.-Mexico).
