The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-05-01
KANSAS NEWS.
A Movement is Started to Make
an Inland Sea
Out of Big Dry Salt Basin in
Barton County.
FED FROM ARKANSAS.
Three bitches From the River
Fourteen Miles Away.
A. E. StilIwell and Kansas City
Capital to Push the Work.
All the Land in That Section
Will Be Irrigated.
FED FROM ARKANSAS.

Great Bend, May Appraisers be-
gun work yesterday condemning land
for the big inland lake in this county,
and they will finish their work before
June 1. Kansas City capitalists assist
ed by A. E. Stillwell, are behind the
scheme. and have the necessary cap
ital to push it. A dam $50 feet long will
be built, the big ditch already con-
structed will be cleaned out and re-
paired, and the water will be turned
into the lake from the Arkansas river.
About eight miles north of here is a
natural basin twelve miles long and six
miles wide. Only one draw leads out of
it, and that is only $50 feet wide. Dam
ming this will make the basin a lake
The land in the basin is worthless for
farming purposes. 1t is gumbo, and the
only thing that will grow on it is salt
grass.
Some years ago F. B. Koen, a rich
ranchman of Colorado and an expert
ditchman, conceived the idea of trans
forming the salt grass basin into a big
lake. He organized what is known as
the Lake koen Navigation, Reservoir
and Irrigation company, with a capital
Of 5000 He did not anticipate that
he would have any difficulty in getting
hold of the worthless land in the basin
so, before acquiring it, he built a big
ditch, forty feet wide and fourteen miles
long, connecting the Arkansas river
with the basin. About the time he COM
along and settled on some of the land
in the basin. They knew they could
not raise anything, but figured on hold
ing Koen up for lot of money, be-
cause he could not flood their land. He
refused to be held up, and at the last
session Of the legislature he got a bill
through giving ditch and lake COM
panies the right to condemn and take
land the same as railroads do. Acting
under this law, his company recently
applied to the district judge and got
three appraisers appointed to condemn
the land in the basin. The appraisers
are D. w: Lider, c. E. Montgomery and
Fred Morse, all farmers Of Barton
county. They qualified and began work
yesterday. A couple of engineers are
assisting them As soon as they re-
port, the company will pay the awards
and begin work on the lake.
The scheme was recently laid before
Mr.. Stillwen and some Kansas City
capitalists, and they win finance the
company. They have already advanced
about $4,000 to pay for the land. It is
estimated that it will take 100000 to
make the improvements contemplated.
The big ditch leading from the Arkan-
sas to the lake will be widened and
deepened. Three irrigation bitches will
be built leading from the lake. 1t is
proposed to furnish water to irrigate
all the land in that section of the coun-
try east of the basin. One ditch will
be cut southeast to Cow creek. That
stream will be used as a. canal for sew
eral miles 1t will be damned in Rice
county and sub-ditches will extend
from there over that county and into
Mcpherson. The southern irrigation
canal will leave the lake at the same
place as the central, and will parallel
the Arkansas river for about forty-five
miles, emptying back into the river just
west of Hutchinson. The northern
/ canal will run east through Ellsworth
county.
Aside from it's use as a source of irri-
cation supply. the lake will be made a
summer resort for western Kansas peo-
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