Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1899-05-19

farming IanOS, DuU Uno conUof OF
the basin is still a gumbo such as
it was when the waters dried up,
fimpervoius to water and incapa-
BILE of ofciultivation. Foryears the
Cheyenne Bottoms were used as
coursing grounds by the sports
and dog fanciers of Kansas, but
the idea of making this an inland
lake did not occur to anybody
seriously until about two years
ago when a rugged man, a Virgini-
an by birth, came to look over
the situation and concluded that
such an enterprise was possible
F. B. Koen, as we have said is
a native of Virginia. AS his
portrait indicates, he is a man OF
rugged frame, clear eye and iron
will. The name of the man in
dicates a German ancestry which
accounts for a certain dogged per-
severance and disposition to
hang on when other men would let
go, but along with the persever-
ance of the Dutch, there is the ad-
venturous spirit Of a man who
has breathed the air of the
mountains. This combination
makes the sort of man who will
undertake large enterprises and
carry them through.
Koen has had experience in
digging irrigation bitches. He
has surperintended the digging
of at least three in Colorado; one
of them the Amity ditch is one
hundred and thirty-five miles
long and will furnish water to ir-
rigate at least 100000 acres.
Mr.. KOen came to look over
the ground and concluded that
not only could water be turned
into the Cheyenne Bottoms and
that depression turned into a
lake which will be a thing of
beauty and utility, but that an
irrigation enterprise could be
inaugurated that would be of
greater extent than any irri-
cation enterprise in the United
States. When a company was
organized and announcement was
made that a ditch was to be dug
from the Arkansas river a distance
of thirteen miles to the Cheyenne
bottoms, there were people who
hOOted at the proposition. They
said to begin with that water
never could be made to run up hill
and do a good job of it and that
any man could see with half an
eye that water would have to run
up hill if it ever got from the
Arkansas river to the Cheyenne
bottoms. They further said that
there wasn't enough water in the
Arkansas river to fill the bottom
even if it could be got over there.
Koen went right along making.
a survey for a ditch. The survey
or demonstrated that the people
who said water would have to
run up hill in order to get from
the river to the lake didn't know
what they were talking about.
There is plenty of fall; but the
people who had seen the Arkan-
saw as dry as a board many a
time were still skeptical. Koen,
however, declared that he under
stood the Arkansas river as we'll
as anybody and that he knew
what he was doing. The ditch
went right along. A hundred
men with shovels and teams plow-
ed and scraped and shoveled.
Three months ago the canal was
open to the lake and water was
turned in just to show that it
would run. 1t became necessary
to secure the right to the bottom
land and for that purpose an act
was passed by the1ast legislature
permitting the condemnation for
a reservoir of the lands lying in
the bottom of the proposed lake.
AS soon as the condemnation
proceedings are completed and
the canal dug to the width
originally intended, water will be
turned into the basin.
1t was a dry day when the writer
saw Mr.. Koen and talkedwith him
about his enterprise 1t was one
of those days which comein Kan
sas which try the spirit of the
Christian and increase the pro
| family of the man of worldly mind
| The wind was whooping, alons
at a fifty mile gait, carrying will
it the dust which it had picked VI
| in Oklahoma Territory togethel
), | with such bricabrac as had beer
gathered up along the road il
| Kansas. Koen was overseeing
, the irrigation of a field of whea
: which lay alongside of the bi:
j ditch. That field by the way