In contrast, canals created unwanted channels through areas being developed by modern farmers. The canals were useful at times, being employed as wagon roads. The ancient ruins and canals were a source of pride to the early settlers who envisioned their new agricultural civilization rising as the mythical phoenix bird from the ashes of Hohokam society. The ancient canals served as a model for modern irrigation engineers, with the earliest historic canals being formed largely by cleaning out the Hohokam canals. Smith and the early Mormon pioneers of the Lehi settlement to begin the process of building a new community founded on irrigation agriculture. In the mid-1800s, the testimony of these ancient canals to intensive prehistoric irrigation, along with the success of the contemporary Pima Indian farmers, led Jack Swilling, John Y.T. Stretching out from the river was a vast system of abandoned Hohokam canals that ran from site to site across the valley floor. Villages containing platform mounds, elliptical ballcourts and trash mounds covered with broken ceramic pots and other artifacts existed throughout the valley. When the first explorers, trappers, and farmers entered the Salt River Valley, they were quick to note the impressive ruins left by the Hohokam.
![hohokam canals map hohokam canals map](https://i1.wp.com/azwonders.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/img_3044.jpg)
Extensive Canal System built by the Hohokam and others to divert water from the Gila River. This information provides new insights into the Hohokam lifestyles and the organization of Hohokam society. We are only now beginning to understand the engineering, growth, and operation of the Hohokam irrigation systems.
![hohokam canals map hohokam canals map](https://phoenixtransect.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/003-URBAN-AGRICULTURE-AND-CULTURAL-POLITICS-AT-THE-PHOENIX-INDIAN-SCHOOL-SITE-20140503171909-1024x723.jpg)
The remains of the ancient canals, lying beneath the streets of metropolitan Phoenix, are currently receiving greater attention from local archaeologists. 1200, hundreds of miles of these waterways created green paths winding out from the Salt and Gila Rivers, dotted with large platform mounds (see Illustrations 1 and 2). 600 to 1450, the prehistoric Hohokam constructed one of the largest and most sophisticated irrigation networks ever created using preindustrial technology. However, these modern agricultural achievements are not without precedent. Visitors to the Salt River Valley are often surprised to discover a fertile agricultural region flourishing in the arid Arizona desert.