Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-10-13
BAD SOIL RECLAIMED
Thousands of Acres in Nevada
Made Productive.
IRRIGATION BOON TO MANY
Homes for $500 Families in Four
Counties Alone.
HAZEN TO BE RAILWAY CENTER
Project to Cost $4,000, ooo-Hun-
dred Thousand Acres Under
HAZEN TO BE RAILWAY GENIE.

By WILLIAM E. CURTIS.
Special Correspondence OF The Star and the
Chicago Record Herald
SALT LAKE CITY, October 4. 1909
Just east of the boundary between Cali
fornia and Nevada on the main line Of
the Southern Pacific railroad. is the
Truckee-Carson project Of the United
States reclamation service. by which a
tract OF 100000 acres of government land
!, is being irrigated and made productive
by the waters of the Truckee and Carson
rivers and Lake Tahoe. The land to be
thus reclaimed will provide homes and
farms for $500 families in Churchill,
! Lyon and Stoney counties. Nevada.
There are four towns within the irri-
gated area-Fallon, Hazen, saltwater and
Fernley.i Reno and Virginia City, the
| two principal towns of Nevada. and Car
| son City. the capital, are just outside
the boundaries Of the irrigated district
| which has been known as Carson Sink.
1t is the bed of an ancient lake long
since dried up, and surrounded by bar
rem mountains and desert hills on three
sides, while on the west rise the snow
| clad peaks OF the Sierra Nevadas, which
| furnish the waters that are retaining
| the soil.
The territory was formerly known as
| the Forty Mile Desert. and was the most
dreaded of all journeys by the travellers
of the overland trail before the construc-
ton of the railroad. Thousands Of ami
mails and hundreds Of men. women and
children persisted from thirst there who
might have been saved had they but
known that there is an abundance Of
water a few feet below the surface of
| the ground. Donners Lake was named
after the leader Of a party of immigrants
who nearly all died Of hunger and thirst
in this wretched region. 1t was all sand
! and sage brush then, but is now alive
with alfalfa, sugar beets and other vege-
tation.
saltwater was a camping place. where
caravans usually remained several days
| to recuperate beside a cool and flowing
spring. Leetville was another stopping
cause of the dilapidated appearance of
| the saloons and restaurants which made
up the larger part Of the settlement.
Supplies Large Area.
Fallen. the county seat of Churchill
county, has population of about twelve
hundred enterprising people, who do an
extensive business among the mining
camps in the neighboring mountains and
furnish, supplies for a very large area.
Six years ago nothing was there but
station house, a water tank and few sa-
looms but at the present rate OF increase
1t should show UP we'll at the next CEN
sus.
Hazen il destined to become a railroad
center and a distributing point for the
populat ton Of the reclaimed area. At Ha-
zen two branches leave the main line OF
the Southern Pacific one Of them run
ming to Goldfeld. Tonopah and other
towns Of the great mining district OF
southern Nevada. and the other. fourteen
miles, to Fallon. where the chief en8i-
neer Of the Truckee-Carson reclamation
project and the United States land ofn-
GERS have their headquarters. People
who desire to obtain lands can address
those officials at F'allon, New. The United
States Department of Agriculture has es-
tablished an experimental farm one mile
south of Fallon for scientific research and
for the instruction of the settlers.
The average elevation Of Carson Sink
is 1000 feet above the level OF the sea,
900 feet lower that Salt Lake and l,2CO
feet lower than Denver, the climate being
very nearly the same as at those cities
Carson river enters the valley from the
| west. and during the spring floods creates
lake in Carson Sink. but under the sum-
mer sun the waters all evaporate and
leave a bare, repulsive fiat glistening
with alkali and devoid of vegetation
There is no outlet. The Truckee river,
| fed by the melting SHOWS OF the Sierra
Nevadas and by the outlets Of lakes Ia
hoe, Bonner and Independent. does not
enter the sink, but turns northward, flows
| into Pyramid and Winnemucca lakes
and is there lost by evaporation. The
government has dug a large canal 10
connect the two streams and diverts both
| of them into the laterals which 1rrigate
the lands around Fa1lon.
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