, 1903-09-17
WYOMING
Ard the National Irrigation Law Re
marks by Hon. +. W. Mondell in
Cheyenne. to Washington Newspaper
Correspondents.

W. lueXnduStlDle III amer
wealth. unsurpassed in fertility of
soil. Situated in the arid region,
she is the mother of waters: for
amid her towering mountains rise.
and from her fertile borders flow,
the fountain waters or the princi-
pal tributaries of every great river
in the Union west of the Ohio, the
Rio Grande alone excepted.
As the fountain-head of irriga-
tion waters, it is most appropriate
and fitting that Wyoming should
be, as she is IN IA large degree, the
law giver among the states in irri-
cation code and administration:
that her highest court should have
recently rendered the self-denying
decision, which declared for the
first time by high judicial author
ity the doctrine that in an arid
region priority of use, of water in
irrigation, gives priority of right,
regardless of state lines. The i'm
portance of this decision is height
ened by the fact that it emanates
from a state which. more than any
other in the arid region, may be
called upon to apply it in re-
straint of It's own citizens of adj
joining states.
By reason of her peculiar loca-
ton Wyoming will be the theatre
of numerous and extensive opera.
tions under the National Irriga-
ton Law, both for the irrigation
of her own arid lands and also of
works primarily or partially for
the irrigation of land in adjacent
states.
THE PLATTE AND SwEETwATER
PROJECTS.
One of tho most important
streams of the state from an irri-
cation standpoint is the North
Platte. On this stream, and one
of it's tributaries, the officers of
the Reclamation Service have
been making extensive SURVEYS
and examinations with a view of
building reservoirs for the storage
of flood and surplus water, and di-
version canals for irrigation.
Careful surveys and detailed and
thorough examinations with a
view to storage have been made at
the DEVILS Gate, an ideal dam-site
on the Sweetwater, and are now
being made at the Grand or Gran
tie Canyon above Alcova on the
Platte. Surveys for diversion
canals have and are still being
made at various points from
Guernsey, near the Nebraska line,
TO Alcova, near the proposed stor-
age reservoirs, and the importance,
as well as the feasibility, of stor-
age and diversion on this stream,
both for the irrigation of lands in
Wyoming and Nebraska, gives us
confidence that the preliminary
examinations will be pressed to Il
speedy conclusion and the actual
work of construction undertaken
in the near future.
THE sHoSHoNE CANAL.
The Shoshone,a tributary of the
Big Horn in Northern Wyoming,
brings from the borders of the
National Park II volume of water
at present unused and unappro-
priated, except for the tract in
question, sufficient for the irriga-
ton of a splendid body of one
hundred and fifty Thousand acres
OF public land lying on the North
side of that stream. A large
party Of the Reclamation Service
has been at work all summer max
ing the necessary surveys and AZ
aminations of this Shoshone pro
lect. The tract proposed to be IT.
rigated is fertile and compact, the
water supply available, abundant
without storage, no question of
prior or individual rights compii-
cate the situation. and it presents
one of the simplest and most feas-
ible, and at the same time most
magnificent projects under consid-
Grafton by the Reclamation
SprvIra-