, 1904-02-25
THURSDAY. FEBRUARY Is. 1904.
EXACT STATUS OF sHosHoNE
PROJECT.

lWo weeks me hepuDllcan has re-
ferred to the Shoshone irrigation en-
terprises, over which there has been
misunderstanding between the
service of the geological
survey and the state government. In
response to a request for the exact
Congressman Mondell has been kind
enough to give us the following:
The present status of the Shoshone
irrigation project is, as | understand
it at this time, as follows:
The officers of the reclamation ser
vice have approved the project and the
secretary of the interior has set aside
$2,250, 900 of the reclamation fund for
the work. The enterprise, as so far
completely worked out by the service,
contemplates the irrigation Of about
lis 900 acres, though the sum set aside
is expected to be sufficient to extend
this project to take in at least 20, 900
acres nor below Garland, between
Frannie and Cowley, and possibly ad-
ditional lands in the drainage of
Clark's Fork. above Eagles Nest.
Should the project work out sue
cessfully, and increased storage in ad-
dition to that contemplated in the first
works be found feasible by the raising
of the Cedar canon dam or storage on
the North Fork, a largely Increased
acreage would undoubtedly flually be
brought under the enterprise; and Mr..
Newell stated a few days ago that by
tho full utilization Of u,otar, not r,
quired for other lands in that region
it might be possible to more than dou-
BILE the acreage now contemplated.
thereby, of course, increasing the total
expenditure.
Colonel Cody has assigned his wa
ter right to the government of the
United States, the right to make such
an assignment having recently been
decided by tile supreme court of the
state of Wyoming; and all hat now
remains to be done to place the federal
government in a position to begin the
undertaking is the REIMBURSEMENT to
the United States of the segregated
tract or the north side of the Sho-
shone, in accordance with the offer
of the late Governor Richards and Mr..
lyman of the state land board in letter
of January 26, 1903.
Since the federal government has
expressed a willingness to undertake
this enterprise, If satisfactory arrange
ments can be made, objections have
been advanced against the transfer of
the north side tract by the state on the
ground that the government was
holding up certain segregations I'M
basin project, and that If the govern
ment undertook the Shoshone project
the Oregon basin project could not go
on. There seems to have been a COM
plete misunderstanding with regard to
this matter. The reclamation service
has .othing to do with the segrega-
lions under the Carey act, except to
act in an advisory capacity when called
Upon by the commissioner of the gen
eral land office. AS long ago as last
September the reclamation service ex-
pressed its entire approval of the seq
regation of list No. %, amounting to
$4,000 acres. Later in the same month,
on being asked to advise as to whether
the segregation of liz 900 acres under
list No. % and its irrigation would in
terfere with the government project,
the reclamation service, after review
ing the situation, called attention to
the fact that the papers accompanying
the case did not affirmatively indicate
a sufficient water supply for the irri-
CATION of the lands sought to be seq
regated. and stated that, in view of the
information they then had, there vas
a possibility of conflict unless a large
storage reservoir were provided for the
government project. The officers of
the service at this time promised to
give further Information on the subject
later. At a later date the reclamation
service informed the commissioner of
the general land Office that, having de-
termined upon a large storage reser-
voir in connection with the Shoshone
project, if it should be undertaken by
the government, there was no longer
Shoshone and the Oregon basin enter
prises.
These communications and ex-
changes of views between the recla-
nation service and the general and
office did not in any way retard con-
sideration of the segregations under
the lists in question, but early in Octo-
Der list No. rs was returned by the
commissioner Of the general land Of
fee to the local land offices in Wyo-
ming for certain corrections and elm
nations where conflict with private
entries occurred and for a supplmen-
tai statement from the State Engineer
as to the s%uficiency of the water sup
ply for the land to be irrigated. The
contracts in connection with lists Nos.
% and 25 were also returned to the
local land Offices for amendments or
new contracts, the commissioner hav-
ing decided that they had not been
signed by the proper state oficer.
Yesterday, when l visited the gen.
eral land office, these lists, contracts
and reports called for had not been re-
turned from the local ofices, 30 that
there is nothing here to act upon.
While the commissioner of the general
land ONCE will not, of course. express
any opinion as to what his fnal action
will be on lists not now before him,
practically all Of the important ques-
lions In connection with these ssgresa-