Clay Thompson

The Republic | azcentral.com

Clay Thompson is off today. This column was first published Jan. 23, 2010.

Gather around, kiddies, and listen while Uncle Clay tells you about the time Arizona went to war with California.

No, this isn't one of Uncle Clay's tall tales. It really happened, although, as wars go, it didn't amount to much.

'Twas back in your great-grandmother's day — 1934.

In the early 1930's, those California rascals started construction on the Parker Dam on the Colorado River to supply water to southern California, even though the dam had not yet been authorized by Congress.

This greatly annoyed Arizonans, who said the Californians were stealing "our" water.

So in 1934, Gov. Benjamin Moeur called out the National Guard and ordered the troops to the Colorado River to block construction of the dam on the Arizona side.

The Arizona force included 40 infantry men and 20 machine gunners.

They commissioned a couple of old steamboats from a pistol-packing state legislator named Nellie Bush to scout the enemy's side of the river. Bush was proclaimed "Admiral of the Arizona Navy."

The fleet got tangled up in some cables and suffered the ignominy of being rescued by the Californians.

All this really honked off Harold Ickes, the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, who had to halt construction of the dam.

The U.S. Supreme Court eventually issued an injunction prohibiting anyone from interfering with construction of the dam and our boys came marching home.