KANAB CREEK.
Kanab Creek rises in springs bursting from underneath the cliffs forming the southern boundary of the Pauns-a-gunt Plateau, and flows southward until it joins the Colorado River in Arizona. Small areas of arable land are found along its course after it has descended to an altitude of 7,500 feet, and thence until it passes beyond the boundaries of Utah. The largest area in one body is in Kanab Valley, at the foot of the Vermilion Cliffs. It is greatly in excess of the water supply, is at an altitude of about 5,000 feet, has a fertile soil, and requires but comparatively a small amount of irrigation. The amount actually under cultivation in 1877 is placed by the best information attainable at 700 acres. The critical period in the cultivation of this area occurs in June. At that time the stream is falling rapidly, and crops have sometimes been seriously damaged. Estimates of the volume of water in the stream, made at different seasons and in different years, give 15 cubic feet per second as the flow in June. Some desultory attempts have been made to increase the supply by ponding, the cañon through the Vermilion Cliffs above the arable lands affording many opportunities. When this improvement is made on some well considered and well executed plan, and the waterways flumed through some bad sandy ground that now absorbs much water, the amount available at the critical period can be at least doubled.
Some years ago a settlement was established at the foot of the Pink Cliffs, on the headwaters of the Kanab, but the town site was eventually abandoned because of the deep snows of winter and the frosts of summer.