Morris tribune., 1909-07-24
DITCH TROUBLES.
Grant and Stevens County
Dumping Water on Traverse.

Few, who do not know the
topography of the county and the
ditching work being done in our
neighboring counties of Grant and
Stevens can realize the danger that
menaces the farms along the rivers
and low lands of Traverse county. 1t
is appalling to watch the Ditching
Machine this side of Herman working
steadily day and night digging ditch
% feet wide and 91s feet deep at the
beginning point with the water of the
of Pullman Lake and numerous
swamps beside behind it, whose OBJ
jective point is Five Mile Greek in
Traverse county, whose channel is
inadequate to hold small per cent of
it and then to realize that this is but
tithe of the drainage bitches now
headed this way, one of which takes
in whole chain of lakes. Surely some
thing should be done to care of this
water and that while there is yet
time.-Wheaton Footprints.
Two years ago the Commercial
Club at Wheaton set out to construct
ditch to care for the water dumped
upon Traverse by the numerous
bitches in Stevens and this county and
asked the Commercial Club at this
place to join them. Herman could see
by the bitches under way in the
northern and eastern part of the
county headed this way that it was up
to us to arrange an outlet for this sur
plus overflow. We readily joined
hands and thingswere running smooth
ly for the big ditch when all of sud-
den Wheaton kicked over the traces
and refused to pull. The state drain
age department has been enlisted to
aid us out of the difficulty and they
reported the big ditch the only solu-
ton. The Commercial Club at this
place spent $500 in the struggle from
the time we joined Wheaton and after
they deserted and began to buck. The
club then decided to petition the
county board for county ditch and
have it empty into Five Mile Greek,
just on this side of the Traverse coun-
ty line. The ditch will be completed
this fall, also the lateral 20 foot ditch
from the railroad bridge near Nor
cross to connect with the main ditch
at Richards. At one time Herman
would have co-operated with Ira
verse in the solution of the drainage
problem, but now it is up to them to
care for the overflow, which will
necessarily result. We are taking no
interest in the possibility of the ex-
tension of the Logan ditch. Shortly
after Wheaton broke away from Her
man on the big ditch proposition they
had a small, shallow six foot ditch
scraped out along the proposed route
of the big ditch, evidently for the very
purpose of stalling Herman in the big
ditch proceedings. The ditch so con-
structed is of no possible value and
Traverse m ust take care of the Logan
ditch water, which will necessitate the
construction of new ditch or deepen
ing the shallow county ditch along
the Wheaton road. The project at
this time will cost considerable more
money. Wheaton should have stuck
to their own proposition when they
invited Herman to join them and not
have listened to few petty politicians
who set out to obstruct every possible
move. With two large dredgers, the
one at work on the Jordahl ditch in
Macsvillle, and the other at work on
the Logan ditch, together with three
large cap-stan ditchers at work we
are unloading the water as fast as it is
being dumped upon us from the north
and east. We know if we lived in
Traverse we would be thoroughly
alarmed at this situation. Think of it,
the Logan ditch eight miles long, the
Macsville ditch eleven; besides all this
the miles of cap-stan bitches, The
Donnelly and Chokio bitches also add
to the flow Traverse must care for.
Herman Review.
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