The Wahpeton times., 1904-09-30
BIG MUDDY As 4 RIVER Of RICHES
Government Plans to Harness the Missouri-Vast
Area in the Dakotas Needs Irrigation.

trust himself and be swept down
stream as fast as man can run.
Indeed, when the Rocky mountain
SHOWS are melting, it is the embodi-
ment OF power, IL not of destruction,
tossing its tawny name as it sweeps
before it millions of tons Of earth,
cutting out new channels and building
up new lands miles and miles in ex.
tent.
Some day it may be possible to pu,
In a great dam couple of miles wide
at one or two points at one or two
points where the river is confined be.
tween high sandstone bluffs, but this
would be work which, while it would
create a great empire of its own,
would make the Nile dam, with its
$25,000.000 Of cost, sink into insignifi.
canoe.
Irrigation Land Between Bluffs.
But there are other means Of maxi
Ing the Missouri contribute to Ameri-
can prosperity. For hundreds of miles
the river is encompassed by steep
bluffs from 200 to $50 feet high and
from two to three miles apart. Be-
tween these the river winds, stream
of from a quarter to half mile wide,
gradually changing it's course from
side to side, but forming great areas
OF beach" lands, twenty, thirty and
fifty feet high-hundreds of thousands
of acres of surprisingly fertile soil,
needing only irrigation. And the wa
tering of this land turns out to he
among the easiest of projects.
Every bluff OF the Missouri shows
a coal vein of from six inches to
twelve feet in thickness. In fact,
enormous areas of North Dakota are
underlaid with splendid Ignite coal.
worth at the mine only 81 ton. There
you have it. The water of the Nilsson.
ri, a limitless, ceaseless supply; just
above it land made by centuries of
river sediment, and Immediately at
hand one of the cheapest known fuels
to pump the water upon the land. 1t
did not take an engineer to see the
feasibility and cheapness of this un.
dertaking.
But why has it not been done? Why
have not the farmers themselves put
in windmills and small pumps? Is
there, after all, some insurmountable
obstacle? No.
Think Irrigation Mystery.
Talks with a few of them show
them as ignorant Of irrigation and its
simplicity as are the farmers of Yer.
mont. In fact, they are rainfall"
farmers, and they regard irrigation as
a mysterious and complicated process.
Government engineers have investi.
gated the problem and far beyond sup
plying the great areas of the lower
benches, they propose to elevate the
water 100 and possibly 200 feet, out
upon the great mesas. They plan q
trip down the Missouri from the Da
kota-Montana line in small skiff, on
a careful reconnaissance Of the old
muddy, its tributaries and its lands.
If they find conditions as favorable as
they would seem, party of survey.
ors will be put upon the project at
once to make the surveys and detailed
plans to be followed by the installa.
tion of giant pumps and water en-.
gines. each of which will create .
small river.
The work of the government IL
FRO ,tr1, with, la
for North Dakota. A great empire lies
latent in the midst of the state, the
worth of which her own people are
but beginning to comprehend. The
fertility of the ages is stored in the
ink-black soil, and the water of halt
a continent flows by, an unusual agent
of wealth. The day of great things
for the land of Laughing Water may
be close at hand.