The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1905-08-23
'AeA0s LIKE A TALE
Of BORDER lAWlEssMEss
Union Gap Irrigation Company's Dam
at Gle Elum Dynamited
Wednesday Night.

dam OF the Union Gap Irrigation
cmpany of this city last Wednesday
evening. One blast of about thirty
pounds Of dynamite was fired, which
tore out several feet Of dam. Before
another blast could be set OF, officers
Of the law. who have been given
a tip surrounded and arrested the
dynamiters, who were found to be
r. X. Tiffany, engineer of the Wash
ington Irrigation company, and five
other men who are in the employ Of
that company. Sheriff Thomas Of
Kittitas county and his deputies
made the arrests and took the men to
jail, at the request Of Messrs. Lom-
bard and Horsley of this city, who
own the ditch and who recently COM
pleted the new dam. Mr.. Lombard
estimated the actual damage to the
dam to be between 1915 and $500
Only the interference of the sheriff
and his men prevented the total de-
struction of the dam.
The attempt to destroy the Union
Gap Irrigation company's property
is the principal topic of CONVERSE
ton on the streets since its occur
renee. There was no trouble in
tracing the origin Of the act, since
the highest officials of the Washing
ton Irrigation company cheerfully
admit that they decided upon and de-
liberately planned the destruction
of the dam at Lake Gle Elum. The
plot was Matched, it is said, in the
office of the company's attorney in
North Yakima on the day previous.
and the engineer for the company,
R. X. Tiffany, told as soon as he ar
rived at Gle Elum what he and his
party were there for. He was pres
ent at the meeting of the officials
of the company here Wednesday and
conferred with E. F. Blaine and
Walter N. Granger. He left at once
for Gle Elum and on Thursday
morning hired rigs at a livery there
to take himself and men to the
lake. The liveryman repeated the
information given by Tiffany to a
party who notified H. H. Lombard
by telegraph, and he wired to the
sheriff of Kittitas county, instruct
ing him to arrest the men IL pos
sible. The officers had been in wait
ing at the dam but a short time when
the wrecking party approached and
lost no time in placing the first
charge under the dam and setting it
of. It is said they had Ave more
charges ready to use, but their ar
rest stopped this.
The attempt to wreck the Union
Gap company's dam follows closely
upon similar attempts. though more
successful, directed against the work
of the government employees who
were building the canal on the res
ervation. Their dam was torn out
about the time that injunction pro-
ceedings were instituted by the
Washington Irrigation company
against w. H. Redman, engineer,
and other government employees.
This Mr.. Redman did not hesitate to
say he believed was the work Of the
Washington Irrigation company or
Its employees. That the supposition
was correct Is shown by the admis-
sions of Mr.. Blaine, embodied in the
following interview in the Seattle
Times of last Friday:
1T Ia true that r. X. Tiffany and
five other persons Thursday morning
used dynamite to blow out dam
which had been constructed by the
Union Gap Irrigation company, and
that the Washington Irrigation
company had removed a temporary
loose rock dam placed in the Yakima
river by w. H. Redman and others,
agents of the United States govern
ment, at the intake of the reserva-
ton canal.
1t is the contention of the Wash
ington Irrigation company and the
Prosser Falls Land and Irrigation
that no one under existing
law has the right to dam I'D the
waters in the lakes which have a
natural drainage into the Yakima
and Natchez rivers; that the Union
Gap Irrigation company certainly
were going contrary to every princi-
pie of irrigation law in holding back
the waters of Lake Gle Elum, when
that company was making no use OF
the waters whatsoever.
"As to the canals on the Irdian
reservation. they were both con-
structed subsequent to the COM
of the Sunnysida canal,
and the secretary Of the int ,rior be-
fore the wt'k was commenced ON
the last ~ the irrigation cana.s was
notified ny the Washington !r..isa-
ton company that at low water in
the Yakima river there would be-
no water for the Indian reservation.
It undoubtedly would have been very
pleasing from the standpoint of Lom-
bard & Horsley and the Union Gap
Irrigation company to have had the
Irrigation company rec
ognize their rights by soliciting them
to make an opening in their dam. AS
against a wrongdoer. however, the
Irrigation company did
not propose to take such a course.
Whatever the Washington Irrigation
company has done, 1t feels that It
has acted within its legal rights and
It's officers and agents have no fear
Of arrest. 1t Is probable, however.
that Lombard & Horsley and the
Union Gap Irrigation company will
be very careful as to whom they
This statement seems to size up the
attitude of the Washington Irriga-
lirl company pretty thoroughly. Mr..
Horsle.r, when asked for a St ,t,ment.
said 10 che Herald:
II saW the iuterview WI, NJ,