, 1906-10-26
Mrs. Graves strong Article.

Mrs. Cora V. Graves in the Lander Re.
publican. Mrs. Graves has had the
advantage of a long residence in Ere.
mont county, knows personally a large
number of people in Lander and
throughout the county, and is in posi-,
ton to get at the facts in the case.
That she has done so, the reprinted edi.
torial fully bears out. She does not
mince matters. She says that Stones
plan fixes no price to be paid for wa,
ter, which may go to $500 or any 9th.
er figure that Stone and his bunch" as
he called the members of the Wyoming
Central Irrigation company, may de
eide to charge. The article in full fol.
lows:
BY Mrs. Graves.
The question of water for the irri-
CATION of the lands on the north side
of the Big Wind river, which are now
a part of our county, is becoming quite
an interesting me-. 1t was charged re.
Gently in a public meeting that The
state engineer, together with Cover
nor Brooks and other state officials.
were in league to monopolize the wa
ter to charge exhorbitant prices for its
uses and that in this way the develop
ment of the country was being retard-
As a matter of fact the lands re.
ferred to would probably never have
been reclaimed, or only a small por-
ton of them, had it not been for the
prompt action of the state engineer
and Governor Brooks. The a%ppropria-
tons already applied for from the Big
Wind river systems will take all of the
water in the rivers for the latter part
Of the irrigation season. At the time
when the state engineer made appli-
cation for this water there were ulans
in the state of Montana to obtain wa.
ter for 100000 acres o. land from this
river, and this would require much
more than all of the natural flow still
left in the rivers.
Company Acting Fairly.
Now as to the expenses aad surveys,
the surveys as yet being very incgm-
plete. We are reliably informed that
the Wyoming Central Irrigation com.
pany does not expect to reclaim the
lands for anywhere near the same as
the estimates in the preliminary sur
vey made by the state engineer. In
fact this will be readily seen when the
attention of our readers is called to
the fact that for the ditch now under
contract for construction, and which
covers something like 1900 acres of
land, is now being built and the COM
pany is paying 100000 to have this
work done. This ditch is only a later
al n as such Is a part of the large
system and it will be readily seen that
the expense of this lateral alone, when
constructed along safe and permanent
lines, is S. per acre The company is
under no obligation to construct the
lateral first or to supply water to this
section of the country, but it is going
to a large additional expense of run
ming the ditch up to the river and there
put in a temporary headgate which
will be sufficient for the present and
supply water to the settler near the
or Riverton.
Good Work Required.
AS to the cost of constructing :eser-
yoirs no n has any accurate infor-
nation at this time. No borings have
bedrock is ten feet below the surface
or 100 feet below the surface and ev
eryone knows that unless solid foun-
dations are found, and the daus are
built upon such lines as to stani any
possible strain that sooner or later will
come. Our settlers would not only
lose water which is stored, and conse-
quently their crops, but loss of life
would inevitably follow a break.
The Price is Limited.
AS to the permit or so-called con
tract granted by the state engineer we
call attention to the fact that the state
engineer has no authority under the
statute to insert a condition limiting
the price which shall be charged for
water, but in this instance he did grant
a permit to the Wyoming Irrigation
company as was his duty under the
application, and he did insert a clause
limiting the price to not more than
$50 and the company has accepted
those terms and is now under obliga-
ton to supply water for not more than
$50 per acre with interest on deferred
payments, and they may lose the mon
ey already invested unless they com
plete the entire irrigation system with
in the time limit of their application.
stone as a Falsifier.
Stone in his remarks the other ev-
ening stated that hundreds of people
had left the state, refusing to file upon
the lands because the price which is
to be charged for water. We have in
CURED from the railroad men and Mr..
q, H. Fourt, who rode upon the trains
between Shoshoni, Casper and Cary
hurst during almost the entire period
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