Hello,
I'm new to this forum and I'm not so much of a LDM/Jacob Waltz fanatic, but I am an early Phoenix history fanatic.
And I know this thread/discussion is over a year old, but I've solved the question as to EXACTLY where the Dutch Ditch was located.
If anyone has already used this method and found out this information in the past year, please accept my apologies. But since no one has posted any info in this thread in 15 months, I thought I would.
Quite simply, I found this Phoenix historical aerials site that shows the Dutch Ditch as plain as day! I have seen a few other historical aerials sites, but those only went back as far as 1959. This site has historical aerials from the Phoenix area dating all the way back to January 1930!
http://gis.maricopa.gov/MapApp/GIO/Aeri ... index.html
On the Jan 1930 aerial, you can clearly see where the Dutch Ditch begins, branching off from the Salt River Valley Canal (Swilling's Ditch) at Harrison & 35th St. It then travels along Harrison, just a few yards south of the railroad tracks to 21st St, where it then turns southwest, crossing 16th St just above Hadley, crossing Buckeye at 14th St, continuing southwest through the intersection of 13th St & Yuma to 12th St & Pima where it heads due south, heading southwest again through the intersection of 12th St & Mohave, through the intersection of 11th St & Durango. It crosses the Maricopa Freeway through the backyard of the current-day house at 1018 E. Durango. It cuts diagonally through the business on the SE corner of 7th St & Maricopa Fwy, crosses 7th St just south of the freeway, and ends somewhere west of 7th St.
Again, this is all very clear on the Jan 1930 aerial.
Looking at a modern aerial of the area and also the 1930 aerial, you can also clearly see the remnant of the canal/ditch that Ed (Roc2Rol) found. But this canal/ditch is most definitely not the Dutch Ditch. This ditch does appear to be historic, though, since it was there by 1930 and probably much earlier than that. You were very close, Ed, but off by about 250 feet. You can also clearly see the route this ditch took (it traveled south of the DD) and it looks like it had it's head on the Salt River at about 40th St.
I've looked at quite a few canal maps of that area from long ago (most notably the map by Omar Turney from 1929) and this other ditch is not listed anywhere. In fact, Turney didn't even list the Dutch Ditch by name, although he DOES list a "gully" in about the general area of the Dutch Ditch and this other unnamed ditch.
A few questions:
Why didn't Turney have the Dutch Ditch listed by name on his very extensive canal map, when just about every other map from that era does?
Was the "gully" that Turney listed actually the Dutch Ditch or possibly this other ditch?
Did this other canal/ditch have a name, and if so, what was it?
I'm glad that at least the issue of "EXACTLY where was the Dutch Ditch?" is finally solved though.
I find these old aerials of Phoenix from 1930 completely fascinating, although it's definitely taking up a lot of my time...lol!
Btw, if you look in 1930 where Sky Harbor is today, you can clearly see remnants of quite a few old ancient Hohokam canals....underneath the runways now.