The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1909-07-30
BIG RECLAMATION PROJECT
NORTH OF BLACKFOOI

NOIRTH OF BLACkFOO
The Dubois Project Of 100000 Acre
III Turned Over to Private Enterpris,
y Six Million Dollars of Eastern CaI
n ital to be Expended. Great Resel
!, voir System to Supply Canal.
Charles Speerman was here fron
!. Boise last week to make the segrega
b ton Of lands lying north of Blackfoot
0 and west of Dubois, Camas and Mar
ket Lake for a syndicate backed b,
eastern capital. Last Monday he re
turned and paid the filing fee O
$32S6 at the local land Office to com
plete the transaction.
The land lies in that part Of the
Snake river plains east Of the sinks
OF Birch creek and Little Lost river
about twenty or twenty Ave miles IN
width from north to south, and reach
Ing eastward to the Oregon Short
Line in places. It is practically the
same tract that was withdrawn from
entry by the Reclamation Service in
1919, and after several years Of in
vestigation they are obliged to relin-
quish 1t to private capital because
the Reclamation fund is all in use and
the government cannot handle 1t.
Mr.. Speerman says the company he
represents is prepared to expend six
million dollars on the project and
that work will begin on it this sea-
son.
A Large Canal
me canal is to be 120 feet wide in
the bottom, and the length will be
about forty miles to where the first
iaterals tap 1t. The depth of the wa
ter is to be eleven feet, and it tans
the North Fork of Snake River above
ST. Anthony and extends westward /
the river itself being fed from sys-
tenn OF mountain lakes or reservoirs
10 be made in the high mountain
about the Teton peaks.
Fine Tract Of Land
me body Of land which this pro
Ject is designed to reclaim is one of
the largest and best in the state.
me surface of the land is uniformlyl
even, as if the valley had been leveled
or with great plain that left 1t true
with just slight irrigating grade.
In fact the face of nature indicates
that 1T was once the bottom of a lake
that extended from the Teton range j
westward to the Blue mountains ana !,
while the outlet of the lake was saw /
lng Its way tediously through the
barriers along what is now
he western boundary of Idaho. vast
shoals existed in all the upper part ?
y the lake from the present Rex ?
'urg and st. Anthony westward to .
5irch creek and Lost River, and the ?
Vlnd and waves worked all the soils Z
lown to one grand level, or to =
'eneral level with few great slopes q
arylng In degree or direction accord
ng to the masses in the hills that O.
1ere Stacked down and made into u
ently-sloping plains. Sc
Seismic Disturbances 70
Following this period Of leveling y
own on the east, and Of erosion on
le west some terrific seismic disturb "
nee evidently took place by which a.
le waterline of the lake (Idaho) was .
'Wered hundreds of feet at one y
.roke, and as the waters receded y
ON the foothills of today, the shore = Z
mes OF that time, great masses of ~
ut mud that stood in the water.
oke down where the drainage across -
lem was heaviest and the mud was w
altered about the foot Of the bank al
what geologists call "alluvial fans" De
e drainage shrinking until 1t was a -
ere creek or dry gulch in evidence W.
day As the waters receded, Snake en-
yer carved out its course, first fill ~
g all the present bench lines. and ed
lally coming within it's present 'ei
INKS. ed
The Lava Flow WI
The old volcanoes such as are now tio
lown as the Big Butte and the 'io
'rthern Buttes which had long been qu
oled and choked with water, and ~
eir craters filled and smoothed over 'ic
wave action, still lowered above ey'
e plain but the heat from within W
nnd Its way to the surface In lower "ul
nner parts of the crust and the lava
oke out anew upon the plain, food ma
It at intervals and cooling, tnen Col
oding again until 1t built up the me
rk ridges now known as the lava aoi
lis. ~
Lake Governed Soil Production INV
During the ages when the great my
oals covered the upper part Of the me