The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-08-18
TAKE OUT THE KINKS.
The Scheme to Drain the Valley
Of Squak River.
WOULD RECLAIM RICH LAND.
The Work to Be Done and Mode Of
Payment-A Navigable Entrance
to Lake Sammamish.


Improvement which is at last likely to be
carried out, after being under discussion
for about four years. In 1883 w. H. Cowie,
George w. Tibbetts and r. NJ. Crawford
investigated the scheme and found it prac-
ticable, but legal difficulties and the lack
of encouragement from the property
owners who would have been benefited
caused them to drop 1t. The stream was
and is still navigable, as the steamers Bee
and Everett made frequent trips along it
and the Duckhunter now plies on
it, SO that the company which car
ried out the work would have had
to grant the abutting landowners
the same privileges of free navigation on
the Strengthened channel as they enjoyed
on the present crooked channel. Thus the
improvers' only prospect of compensation
was to secure land subsidy from the
property owners. When they preached
the subject to the property owners only a
few showed any disposition to grant SUBJ
sidy, the majority thinking they ought to
be paid for right-of-way. So the subject
was dropped.
The passage of the drainage law has
made it possible to revive the scheme with
every prospect of its being carried out.
This law provides that when five owners
of property in district which it is pro-
posed to ditch petition the county COM
missioners and put up bond for 500 to Sc
cure the cost of survey in case the
scheme is rejected, the district
shall be surveyed in sections
of 100 feet. If the surveyor finds the
scheme practicable and the commissioners
approve it, day is set for hearing objec-
tons. If, after hearing all DIRECTORS. the
commissioners still think the scheme a
good one, they advertise for bids, let con-
tracts and bond the district for twenty
years for the cost. Annual assessments
on the property interested are levied to
pay the taxes and interest and create
sinking fund large enough to redeem the
bonds at maturity.
The present movement began about
three months ago, Lauron Ingels having
been most active in circulating the petit
ton. The signatures of eight property
owners were secured and seven others gave
their support. They put up the required
800 bond, and the survey is now being
made.
The proposed ditch would by straight
ening and deepening the channel reduce
the length of the stream from about severn
would drain a strip of land about mile
wide along the valley. and comprising
about 500 acres. 1t is proposed to MAKE
the ditch forty-five feet wide at the top,
twenty-six feet at the bottom and eight
feet deep. AS the whole valley naturally
slopes to the river from each side, it
wound be thoroughly drained. 1t is es-
timated that about $50 600 cubic wards of
earth would have to be removed, and this
will probably be used in making county
road along the stream, which the COM
missioners will be asked to plank.
An idea may be formed how tortu-
Gus the present channel is from
the bare fact that it is seventeen miles
long and can be replaced by straight
channel of seven miles. In some places
100 yards of straight channel will take the
place OF one and a half miles of the present
winding channel. Still. part of the old
channel can be used, and it is expected
that only about five miles of new ditching
will be needed. The total cost of the
work is estimated at about $25,OOO
AT present, although a great deal of
land in the Squak valley is cleared, it is
not cultivated, because it is under water
during the winter and late In the spring.
With fall OF ten feet between the two
lakes and the length of the river reduced
from seventeen to seven miles, in deeper
channel this surplus water will be
drawn off and the land made available
for cultivation. The valley is not a
swamp. for the sub-soil is thick. clayey
substance, while the surface soil is rich
loan, equal to that of the White river and
Snoqualmie valleys, and is suitable for
growing grain, hay, hops and vegetables.
The ground is very easy to clear, for there
is no brush beyond low willows, hard
hack and maple. Four-tifths of the land
is now useless but would be reclaimed by
drainage.
ditch of the size projected would be
navigable by steamers through its whole
length and would be a means of regular
water communication between the two
lakes. Farmers along the valley and on
Lake Sammamish could bring their prod
ucts by boat through this river and across
Lake Washington to Madison street,
whence they could be hauled right into
the city. No special precautions against
the washing away of the banks will be
needed. as the soil is a rich. greasy loan,
such as would only wash away slowly.