The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-01-15
AN INLAND SEA.
Further Progress Of the Irri-
CATION Scheme
To Flood the Cheyenne Bottoms
Near Great Bend.
DITCH Is MILES LONG.
Enters the Basin With a 80
Foot Fall.
Soil is Gumb0 and There Will
Be No Seapage.
ITCH Is MILES LONG.

correspondent of the Hutchinson
News AT Great Bend talks interestingly
of the flooding OF the Cheyenne bot
toms. He says:
Several years ago Mr.. L. Baldwin. ]
citizen of this city and at one time
county superintendent of this county,
conceived the idea of turning the waters
Of the Arkansas river into the Chey-
enne bottoms, thus forming z great in
land sea and a storage reservoir for
keeping the storm waters.
Mr. Baldwin insisted that this
scheme was practicable, though IL did
not meet with favor by the people and
was BY them considered as the product
OF a very vivid but disOrdered iEaagin-
alton Il was soon forgotten and was
supposedly dead. But not so. Mr..
r B. koen of the firm of hoen Bros,
one OF the largest irrigation ditch dig
gers in Colorado, made several trips
here during the past year and decided
the plan was feasible
Arriving at this conclusion he came
mere about three weeks ago and made
q preliminary survey OF a ditch TO con-
meet the river and the bottoms, strik-
4ng the river at point near the Paw
nee Rock bridge
Having completed the survey Mr.
koen, at 4 meeting OF our citizens Of
feTed to dig the ditch if the land own
ers would donate the right of way and
ne could secure options on the bottom
liens. including J. v .Brinknan G. W.
Moses. Theo- Griffith, s. A Newcombe.
c. Samuels and J. T Lewis. undertook
TO secure the right of way and found
no trouble in doing So
The right of way contracts call for
a donation of a strip of land 200 feet
wide, in return for which the land
owner receives the water for $50 per
acre and also the appreciation in the
value Of the land The ditch proper is
TO be 100 feet wide and at the center
four feet deep. measured from the sur
face Of the ground, and the earth thus
removed will be used to bank up on the
sides Along the ditch from start TO
finish Will be a roadway thirty feet
wide, which will be open to the public
Leaving the river, the ditch continues
in northeaSterly direction for = dis
lance of sixteen miles, passing through
both the dry and wet Walnut valleys
The soil IN these valleys is 4 rich black
loan and is highly productive These
valleys can be irrigated from the ditch
to the mouth of the creeks and will thus
place under thorough irrigation many
thousands Of acres OF the richest farm
ing lands in Kansas The ditch enters
the bottoms over one of the highest
bluffs on the western side and has al
the point Of entrance a fall ofover thirty
feet
The Cheyenne bottoms is a great nat
Sra1 basin- containing SO, 900 acres It's
name is derived from the CHEYENNE In
dians. with whom il was a favorite
hunting ground in early days It's soil
is mostly gurnbo and Is compare lively.
worthless as farming land The gum
DO in the soil makes it an ideal bed for
q lake as there is no seapage at all. By
this ditch it is proposed to fill the bot
tom, making q great inland sea which
will add greatly to the moisture in the
atmosphere and viii prevent to a great
extent the disastrous hot winds. From
this lake many thousands of acres Of
rich. fertile farming country can be
flooded, thus assuring crops.