The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-12-27
Irrigation Projects Promise Much for State

Giant strides were made in 1908 IN lrrl-
CATION in Utah Projects have been
brought to successful conclusions and
Others are well under way. In many
places townsites have been marked out
where the sagebrush held sway The
Strawberry valley project has been pushed
until that great undertaking is now a
third part completed. At least two great
undertakings have been successfully
launched under the Carey act The state
of Utah has completed one project winch
will open new farms and has let con-
tracts for another great reservoir. Phi
vate companies have built canals which
will furnish water to many more farms
Some of these are just opening, while In
others thousands of acres have been sold
to homeseekers.
The Strawberry Valley.
At the beginning of 1908 little progress
had been made upon the Strawberry Val
ley reclamation project. Great difficult
ties had been. encountered. Some of these
have been surmounted others still re-
MAN. but the United States engineers
in charge of the work have more than
progress to report All of the prelimi-
nary work has been completed. lnclud-
ing the construction of the immense pow
er plant which will furnish the power
to push the tunnel through the 1900 feet
of mountain. This tunnel is now in from
the west portal a distance of 5000 feet.
Wagon roads from the line of the Den
yer & Rio Grande railroad to both por-
tails of the tunnel have been built and
a telephone line has been stretched from
the work to Spanish Fork. At the work
itself technical difficulties have been dis
posed of and the coming year will see
the project almost, If not entirely com
pleted When the work is done 5000
acres of waste lands will be turned into
prosperous farms. The great power dam
will furnish power to many of the towns
and cities. and water Will be distributed
by a system of thirty-five miles of ca
nails The value of the project to Utah
and to Salt Lake and Utah counties in
particular cannot be estimated
What the State Is Doing.
The state has carried to completion du-
ring the year the Hatchtown reservoir,
in Garfield county, at cost of 100000.
1t has also let preliminary contracts for
the Piute project, which will cost S4Se,-
900 and will irrigate 10000 acres in Sewer
county
The Hatchtown reservoir project was
carried out by the state board of land
commissioners With its canals and la
terals, it will irrigate 1900 acres of land.
The dam is located on the south fork of
the Sewer river and the canal is approx
inately twenty miles in length. with a
capacity of 125 cubic feet per second.
This was completed on Nov. 30 last and
the diversion dam at the head OF the ca
nal- was finished during December. The
water rights have been sold to private
parties. The land will be sold in tracts
of 40 acres each by the state, price of
so an acre having been placed on ii
with water right.
SEWER River Plans.
The state board of land commission
ers is now engaged in building the res
ervoir on the Sewer river in connection
with what is known as the Piute pro-
ject While the reservoir is located in
Piute county. the project will irrigate %,
4 l--n
pete counties. lying on the west side OF
the Sewer river and extending from a
point two miles north of Richfield to a
point west of Fayette. The canal for
the irrigation of this land was made for
the first twenty miles by charging the
existing Sewer Valley canal thence con-
tinuing as an independent structure for
thirty-five miles, The point of diversion
south of Joseph City. in Sewer county
and the point where the independent
structure begins is located two miles north
of Richfield in Sewer county.
The reservoir, when completed, will
store $500 acre-feet of water. A dam
IS feet high is feature of the project
The tunnel has already been completed
and half the work has been done on the
pairing plans for the construction of the
dam. The project will be entirely COM
pleted during the coming year.
AS soon as the land board decided to
build the reservoir all the public land
falling within the area that was to be
reclaimed was selected by the state I'M
der several land grants to the state by
the United States government, so that the
state owns the greater portions of he
land to be irrigated, though there are
s. 700 acres of private lands to which wa
ter rights will be sold
This is the greatest undertaking which
the state land board has had on foot
but. with the money at its command
| it has assisted a number of companies
I in smaller undertakings. leaning them
money on good security Experiments
wells have been dug-some of them sue
cessful and some of them not