Trades/Construction
RANCHO RESORT
MAINTANANCE POSITION Administrative & Professional
Jorgensen Brooks Group
Counselor Administrative & Professional
Tucson Urban League
CEO/President Mechanical
Komatsu Equipment Co
Resident Field Mechanic Sales and Marketing
Everready Glass
Sales Reps Finance and Accounting
Charles E. Gillman Company
Accounting Specialist

ELIZABETH MAGGIO / ARIZONA DAILY STAR 1977 What better place to build the largest solar-powered irrigation system in the nation than in Gila Bend? After all, there's plenty of sunshine, there was a ranch with 25,000 acres of cotton that needed water and it was 1977 — solar energy was hot. Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. and the Battelle Memorial Institute had joined forces to build an irrigation-system prototype at the Paloma Ranch, 10 miles west of downtown Gila Bend. Seen here on Aug. 18, 1977, the collectors consisted of 5,500 square feet of mirrors. They would heat water in black pipes to 300 degrees, which in turn heated Freon into a gas powerful enough to operate a turbine-powered pump. The pump could move 10,000 gallons of water a minute into a nearby irrigation ditch. The project cost about $500,000.