Evening star., 1909-08-29
ALONG SNAKE RIVER
Towns and Farms Where Was
Formerly a Desert.
RESULTS OF IRRIGATION
Nearly Million Acres Of Guilt.
waited Land.
MANY FALLS OF THE RIVER
Enormous Amount of Horsepower
That Might Be Developed
From the Stream.
MANY FALLS OF THE RIVER
Bi WILLIAM f. CURTIS.

TWIN FALLS, Idaho, August 20. 1909.
When the tired and dusty passengers
come out of Yellowstone Park at the
western gate, they find long trains of
Pullman sleepers waiting them at the
little station of Yellowstone, which is
the terminus OF the Oregon Short Line.
They have ''wash-up and brush-up," as
they say i'll England. bountiful supper
at OF the best railway restaurants
YOU ever saw, and tumble into their
berths soon as the train starts. They
feel as if they have had all that mind
and soul and body can bear. Their ex
perlence in the park has been novel,
80 eventful and so interesting; the seem
cry is so sublime, the freaks of nature
are wonderful, the drives are SO at
tractive that the mind has been constant
~ alert for a week, and one feels a
mental indigestion, like when he has eaten
too mucn dinner.
The next morning the occupants of
some of the sleepers find themselves in
Salt Lake City; others are OH their
way from Ogden eastward, over the
Union Pacific others are on the Southern
Pacific trains bound for San Francisco,
or on the Oregon Short Line trans, en-
route to Portland and the Seattle eX-
position.
From Pocatello branch line runs al
most parallel with the southern boundary
OF the state of Idaho, along the brink
of the canyons OF the Snake river
through what is probably the most ex-
tensive, or at least the most remarkable,
irrigated section in the United States. If
not In the world. The valley of the Nile
is longer and wider, and has been under
irrigation for thousands of years. The
soil in this part of Idaho has known
water only a few years but is dotted
with towns and villages that have almost
sprung up in the night, and with little
farms and orchards, only a few years
old. yet already producing crops
that are almost incredible. We hear
much about magic cities and wonder
lands. Those words are very useful in
the advertisements of promoters and
boomers, who really do not often intend
TO confine themselves to facts, but things
have happened down here in actual life
that are stranger tan anything that is
told in the Arabian Nights or the
tales of Baron Munchausen, and if you
do not believe what | say You can come
and see for yourself.
Extent of Irrigation.
Idaho is rapidly becoming the most
extensively irrigated district in the United
States, if not in the world, and the Snake
river is becoming the greatest source of
irrigation, as it is one of the most re-
markable of streams. The following
statement will give you some kind of an
idea of the state of irrigation in Idaho
Number OF irrigation companies - 2e6
Capital invested ~. II 81 - 80
Acres covered by canals. ..........-. 2s69 S96
Acres uncuitivated. ed.................. ISL, 1886
Miles OF main canals is.--....-. 262s
Miles OF lateral canals. .............. 6,3i3
The six biggest counties for irrigation
in Idaho are Bingham, which has 49,
go acres under canal; Lincoln, which has
430..50 Canyon, which has 556000. Ada,
which has 2O3,3 Fremont, which has
Tuyffl En1C y-hf IA
acres. All of the other counties in the
state have more or less irrigated land
Custer county having only 14.1D acres
under water. No other county except
those / have mentioned have more than
100000 acres under canals.
Nearly 80 per cent of all this 1855, ,S96
acres under irrigation are dependent upon
the Snake river and its branches for
water.
In Bingham county twenty-five prof.
ects. which have reclaimed 45S,520 acres;
i'll Fremont county, sixteen projects
which have reclaimed 100000 acres: in
Lincoln county, three projects, which
have reclaimed 2I0,000 acres; in Cassie
county, one project. which has reclaimed
10000 acres, and in Twin Falls county,
two projects. which have reclaimed 400,
coo acres, are all entirely dependent upon
Snake river, while practically the rest
of tne state is dependent upon its
branches.
Horsepower of Snake River.
The Snake is wonderful stream. There
is more horsepower III its rapids than
would be needed to operate all the rail-
Ways and all the factories in the United
States, and the possibilities of the future
cannot be measured l was thinking the
other day, as l watched its tremendous
current sweeping along with irresistible
force and serene confidence through the
canyon it has excayated for its passage
across the state, how just and well de-
!. served its conscious dignity, and how
proud the soul of the river must be of its
usefulness and Importance to mankind.
The Snake is the seventh river in the
United States in size, and the Columbia,
OF which it forms the principal part, is
the third. The Snake bears the same
iation to the Columbia that the Missouri
does to the Mississippi and is larger than
any of the other tributaries of the Mis-
sissippi.
1t rises in a group of springs about
eight miles south of Yellowstone lake and
once received part of It's overflow as
we'll as the Yellowstone river, but some
eonvulsion Of nature raised barrier be-
tween them, and now the waters of the
lake so over the falls of the Yellowstone
down into the Missouri and via the Mis-
sissippi to the Gulf of Mexico. The Snake,
proud and dashing little stream from
its very birth, takes northerly circuit
into the park and receives the waters of
the Shoshone and Lewis lakes through
the Heart and Lewis rivers Several other
streams flow into ii before it leaves Wyo-
ming. 1t passes through Jackson's Hole
and receives the overflow OF Jackson's
lake and encircles the base of the Teton
mountains amid majestic scenery. 1t
gives from 1.Joo0Oo to 100000 acre feet
Of water to irrigate Wyoming and drains
2.03,0o0 acres in that state.
The Snake enters Idaho just above the
southern boundary of the park, flows
northward more than hundred miles
through a deep canyon, from which it
merges upon wide rolling plateau.
Its course through Idaho is more than
$40 miles and it receives the drainage of
three-fourths OF the state. After travers-
ing the southern counties it crosses the
states, becomes the boundary line between
Idaho and Oregon, Washington and Mon
tana, and then turns westward 125 miles
until Ii reaches Lewiston where it meets
the Lewis and Clark rivers and with them
becomes the Columbia. Through all of
this course IL is useful to mankind: its
flow never ceases and Is always abundant
While the melting SHOWS of the spring
contribute to fill its banks above the nor
NAL depth, 1t is never so low as TO be
unable to fulfill its mission. Before the
railroads came 1t used to be navigated to
within 10 miles Of Salt Lake City.
Falls Of the Snake River.
The several canyons of the Snake are
among the deepest and most precipitous
i'm all the Rocky mountains and 1t is at
x.r,fl u-r,S