Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-07-14
Big Irrigation Schemes.


their biggest profits when other regions are
suffering.
Big Irrigation Schemes.
am surprised at the irrigation schemes
which are projected and being carried on
here and there throughout our western
states. A very important one Is in Oregon
In the Deschutes River valley There are
now three companies there redeeming lands
to the amount of about three hundred thou
SAND acres. They are working under the
government reclamation projects the gov
eminent giving the lands to settlers who
are TO pay fixed rates for the water rights.
The companies will charge about SO per
acre for such rights and after that main
tenance fee of a dollar per acre per year
In those regions it is estimated that eighty
acres is good-sized farm and at that rate
the valley Will furnish about four thousand
farms, giving it a population of twenty
thousand souls. Another project is to re-
claim the great Silver Lake desert by the
surplus waters of the Deschutes river,
which now run 10 waste in the winter time.
One of the largest city irrigation schemes
is that of the Owens river. This is to be
brought over the mountains to Los Angeles
from about two hundred miles away. 1t
VIII give water to n hundred thousand
acres, and at the same time furnish the
city with alli can use and give ii an enor-
nous water power. The cost of the under
taking will be something like so $50 600.
The river is now flowing along in a valley
higher than the tops of the Alleghenies in
Pennsylvania. The valley is about ten miles
wide and more than one hundred miles
long, and between 1t and Los Angeles are
more than two hundred miles of deserts
and mountains. In order to bring It to the
city 1t will have to be taken for a great
part of the distance through a mighty ca
nal. 1t viii have to pass through mountain
tunnels for twenty miles, and the tunnels
will each be wide as a country road and
as high as a Pullman car. They viii, how
ever, be used only for the water
For art of he thl nal will m
along the sides of the hills where retaining
walls will have to be built and one hundred
and fifty miles of it will pass through land
which can be excavated with steam shoVels.
All told it will take at least five thousand
men working steadily for four years TO
build the works needed.
The Owens River Town.
The water engineers estimate that the
fall of the water will produce ninety thou
sand horse power and that there will be
million tons of water dropping down daily
out of a channel fourteen feet wide in a
vertical fall of more than quarter of
mile. This power WILL it is estimated, sell
for more than enough to pay the interest on
the investment. 1t will be furnished within
twenty-five miles of Los Angeles and the
receipts therefrom will, II is calculated,
bring in something like per cent on the
total investment. The undertaking of
scheme like this gives one some idea of
the Los Angeles spirit. The people of that
city are among the best boomers of the
west Every one is Interested In the growth
of his town. and is willing to spend time
and money to help lie. Los Angeles has
chamber of commerce building which be-
longs to the city, and its chamber of COM
merce comprises 1900 members, who each
pay 81 per month A magnificent exhibit of
the products and manufactures OF south
ern California is always on show, and new
schemes are gotten up every, week or so
to- advertise the country to push other
methods of increasing the population.
Portland After the Fair.
Another city which has been growing very
rapidly is Portland Oregon. Although it
| cost the people something. the exposition
was a paying investment. 1t was not sue
ceeded by a slump at the close, such as
Chicago had after the worlds fair and
such as st. Louis felt for a time at the
end of the st. Louis Purchase Exposition.
The merchants of Portland tell me that
business has been good right along and
that their trade has steadily increased. The
jobbers are now doing a business of some
thing like two hundred million dollars a
year, which is thirty or forty million dollars
more than In the days before the exposf-
. ton. Real estate values have gone up fully
% per cent and lots on the principal busl-
ness streetA are now selling at one, two
and three thousand dollars a front foot.
There are many new residences and several
sky scrapers are in course of construction.
The Richest on the Pacific.
Portland men claim that their town is.
man for man. the richest on the Pacific
coast, and that the people are more evenly
well to do than in any other city of the
world. Portland has ranked among the
wealthiest cities for many years 1t is
surpassed only by Frankfort-on-the-Main
which gets its wealth through the Roths-
childs and other big banking interests. and
lent with the savings of the poor stored
away in the various insurance Eaonopolies.