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Detailed map of a portion of Imperial County, including Imperial, Brawley, Holtville, Heber, Calexico and Silsbec, showing 8 of the 13 mutual water companies which would later merge to form the Imperial Irrigation District in 1911.

The map detailes the areas controlled by various Mutual Water Companies (identifed as I.W. No. 1, I.W. No. 2, etc.) and the Canal and Lateral system constructed to distribute water to early farmers in the Imperial Valley by the Imperial Land Company. Several of hte main canals are named and the Imperial & Gulf Railroad and Holtville International Railroad are shown.

Imperial County was formed in 1907 from the eastern portion of San Diego County. The county took its name from Imperial Valley, itself named for the Imperial Land Company, a subsidiary of the California Development Company, which at the turn of the 19th to 20th century had claimed the southern portion of the Colorado desert for agriculture. Much of the Imperial Land Company's land also existed in Mexico (Baja California). The objective of the company was commercial crop farming development.

By 1910, the land company had managed to settle and develop thousands of farms on both sides of the border. The Mexican Revolution soon after severely disrupted the company's plans. Nearly 10,000 farmers and their families in Mexico were ethnically cleansed by the rival Mexican armies. Not until the 1920s was the other side of California in America sufficiently peaceful and prosperous for the company to earn a return for a large percentage of Mexicans, but some chose to stay and lay down roots in newly sprouted communities in the valley.

The Imperial Irrigation District (IID) was formed in 1911 under the California Irrigation District Act to acquire the properties of the bankrupt California Development Company and its Mexican subsidiary. The IID had acquired 13 mutual water companies, which had developed and operated distribution canals in the Imperial Valley, by 1922. It is currently based in Imperial, California. Prior to 1942, irrigation water for the Imperial Valley was diverted from the Colorado River near Pilot Knob into the IID-operated Alamo Canal (also known as the Imperial Canal). Since 1942, water has been diverted at the Imperial Dam on the Colorado River through the All-American Canal, all of which the IID operates and maintains.