Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1906-12-31
WORK ON The BIG bitches
Huntlsy TrOisOt Makes Rapid Progress
Toward Completion.
LAND NAY &c ,PeNEo NEXT YEAR
Scarcity of Labor Makes IL Necesaary
for Reclamation 60 DO Much
work by direct Force
Account.
(From a Stan Correspondent)

WASHINGTON, Dec. 80 90 Especially
The scarcity OF labor and the dificulty
OF getting satisfactory proposals is com
pelling the reclamation service engineers
TO undertake a number of the larger works
by direct force account, employing la
borers and teams" said II. N. Savage,
supervising engineer of the reclamation
service for North Dakota, Montana and
wyoming, who is in the city on a brief
visit. while the policy of the reclama-
ton service is to advertise all of its work
and to award contracts wherever practic-
able, It Is frequently necessary to take
over number of the contracts and carry
them out to completion.
The st. Mary canal is one OF the we'll
known features of the reclamation. service
work. The canal crosses the Blackfeet
Indian reservation, and the engineers EN-
ployed the local Indians with their teams
% far as available during the season of
1906. Two hundred and eighty teams were
on the work at one time. 1t is expected
that an equal or larger number will be
available for the work during the coming
season, 1907. The reclamation service will
consider informal proposals from contrac-
tors who desire to take small sections of
this work. The nature of the canal is
such that there is opportunity for small
contractors with steam machinery OF with
teams to get satisfactory contracts.
HuntIey Project Advances.
Work on the Huntley project is pro-
crossing rapidly. 1t is expected that some
water will be available for irrigating the
land In the spring OF 1907. An effort will
be made to open the land to entry next
summer, thus enabling the entrymen to
get their lands broken up and their houses
and barns erected during the summer and
fall.
The work on the three tunnels is being
carried on by contractors working three
shifts continuous time, and the contrac-
tors report they will finish this work and
one section Of the main canal on schedule
time The engineers are building the pump
Ing plant for this project by force account,
no satisfactory bids having been received.
A large force of teams and men are now
at work. This lie a unique factor in that
the water Of the main canal is dropped
thirty-three feet and the power thus
created is utilized to lift water to a height
OF eighty-five feet, covering an additional
5000 acres of land.
school Opens I'm January
Arrangements have been made to open
school on January / and twenty-five
pupils are already waiting to attend. These
are children OF people employed by con-
tractors who are prospective settlers under
the project and who have already moved
their families to Huntley. A Sunday school
has been in operation for three months
with an attendance OF from twenty-five to
forty The school house is practically COM
pleted. The Sunday school is held at the
cottage OF the supervising engineer.
The first unit of the Sun river project
near Great Falls, is approaching the con-
struction, stage rapidly. Drawings and
specifications have been completed for the
distribution system. and for the structures
for the first unit of 1900 acres, which in
cludes the Fort Shaw military reservation.
II is expected proposals will be received
about March 1 for this work. Drawings
and specifications have also been CON-
pleted for the Willow Creek dam, and ad-
vertlsement will be made the first week in
January. This reservoir will store water
to supplement the low flow of Sun river.
ION the Lower Yellowstone the contrac-
tors are carrying on the work as rapidly
as climatic conditions will permit. Work
on the big dam across Yellowstone river
Is being prosecuted by the Pacific Coast
Construction company. and the deep cuts
on the main canal are being excavated
with sheetsted steam excavating machinery
OF large size"