The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-12-30
SHosHoNE FALLS siLENcED.

been taken over by the government
and is being enlarged and extended, be-
ing made of sufficient size to carry
nearly the entire flood flow of the
stream. The reservoir will be very
large, having a meander line of some
twenty-five miles. 1t win hold 200, 900
acre-feet Of water.
Large Surplus of Water.
During the period of high water,
there is sufficient in the river to irri-
gate all the lands on the south side and
leave a great surplus. This surplus
viii be distributed to the lands in the
lower end of the valley, the remaining
flow of the stream being used in the
upper portion. Lands already under
cultivation but with an insufficient sup
ply for the dry season will thus re-
ceive an added flow sufficient for their
needs. while an addition of 10000 ceres
will be made TO the cultivated area.
These works, when completed, will
have cost about s., 800 600.
At Minidoka, the government has
practically completed the gravity sys-
TEN designed to irrigate about 10000
acres of land on the north side of the
Snake and a small tract on the south
side. The dam is completed and has
been tested: the canals have been ex-
cavated and the lateral system is about
finished. The main canals are being
puddled and the system will be ready
to deliver water to the settlers in the
spring. The dam backs the water up
thirty-five miles and it floods the cOun-
try to such an extent that at one place
the lake is two and a half miles wide.
No Expense Spared.
This system is claimed to sbe one of
the most substantially built in the
country. No expense has been spared
in the effort to make it perfect. At no
point has any temporary work been put
in, everything being constructed to
stand indefinitely. That is one of the
very important features of the govern
ment reclama ton work, the aim being
to turn over works to the settlers which
shall need little or no work to over
come Oversights or carelessneSS in the
original construction There will be no
wooden structures to replace after a
few years, and so far as possible pre-
cautions are taken against leaving any
place where a weakness can develop.
The ambition of the engineers has been
to provide works as enduring as those
found in India and which will involve
no cost for maintenance other than
that incidental to operation of the prop
erty.
The MinidOka system in its entirety
involves the installation of a great
pumping plant to lift water to a large
area on the south side of the river.
With this end in view, the works at
the dam have been constructed so that
an electric power plant can be set in
whenever it is desired to install it.
Power from that plant will be trans
mitted to series of pumping stations
at which water will be lifted to sue
eeeding benches for distribution to the
land. The installation of the pumping
system may be delayed two or three
years.
Twin Falls Project.
Development of the great irrigation
project at Twin Falls has progressed
rapidly during the year. A large per-
centage of the $50 900 acres of land has
been brought under cultivation, and the
system Of canals and laterals has been
completed. The enterprise is of private
character, the land being reclaimed I'M
Ger the Carey act, under which the
lands to be reclaimed are donated TO
the state by the general government
and brought under water by private
capital, ip accordance with contract en-
tered into with the state. The settle
ment and reclamation of that tract Is
declared TO have been the most remark
able work of the kind every known in
the country. The settlers were all pos
sessed of means, and they went to work
with viii to put their lands in condi-
ton and provide their places with suit
able buildings and other improvements.
As a result the great plain has been
transformed in two seasons, and visitors
find it impossible TO believe that the
plow first touched any of that soil only
in May last year.
1t is the plan of the Twin Falls Land
q Water company, by which that work
has beer done, to take out a similar sys-
tenn on the north side of the river to
cover lac. 600 acres. The canal will be
taken from the same dam. Tt viii cover
a small tract in the vicinity of the dam
and a much larger tract lying farther
west, between the Snake and the Short
Line and west of the road leading from
Shoshone to the falls. At Gooding the