Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1909-02-10
1O OVERCOME FLOODS
Biggest Drainage Project in
West Now Under Way in
Western Iowa
THREE COUNTIES INTERESTED
Woodbury. Harrison Monona Ditch De-
signed to Increase Flow Of Waters
in Little Sioux River - Project in
Reality straishtens Bed of Stream
Will Benefit Thousands Of Acres.
Special to Times Republican.

| Onawa Feb 10.--The greatest drain
age project in the middle west ds now
being developed in the Missouri river
bottom in Iowa in the counties of
These counties comprise some of the
richest land in the United States. This
is a valley OF about fifteen miles in
width, bordered on one side by the
Missouri river and on the other by an
irregular line of bluffs above which
! stretch the rolling prairies SO charac-
teristic of Iowa.
/ The fall in this valley, however. is
only about one foot to the mile. This
er and dts tributary, the Little Sioux
river. The Little Sioux river drains an
| immense tract Of land over 400, 900
acres and in the spring when the hills
| in which dts source Is situated are del
uged with rains, 1t rises with great
rapidity and spreading out over the
level bottom land for miles carries In
| its wake ruin and disaster In years
when the rains are especially heavy
this land becomes sea of water that
ruins crops and hay lands and prevents
any farming. In Woodbury. county there
are about $4,000 acres subject to this
overflow while a large portion of Mo-
mona county bottom land, amounting to
about 10000 acres Is, during this sea-
son submerged. However during
| t1,I to- 11,,
unaffected. and wonderful results and
yields are obtained from 1t.
Relieve Flood Situations.
To relieve the food situation was the
/, problem that arose. 1t seemed that to
drain the land with large bitches was
the only solution, thus providing an
outlet for all this accumulation of wa
ter. This was agitated by the press and
by the citizens and farmers and in July,
1906, the two boards of supervisors of
Monona and Harrison counties let the
contract for the Monona- Harrison
ditch. The work was delayed on ac-
count Of litigation in court and not
until April, 1907, was 1t resumed.
A few years ago what was known as
the Woodbury. Monona ditch was con-
structed. This ditch commenced in
Woodbury. county and ran south along
the line of Wolf creek into Monona
county to point connecting with the
west fork of the Little Sioux river This
connection is three miles from the
confluence of the west fork of the Lit
tie Sioux At this connection the Mo-
mona Harrison ditch was started. 1t
runs in in south and southwesterly
direction for over twenty-five miles and
empties directly into the Missouri.
Besides the big ditch many laterals,
cutoffs and small bitches We're con-
structed. BY placing cutoffs in the
bends of the river the clstnnel length
of the stream is shortened. In one cut
off of $50 yards in length three and
a half miles are saved in the old cham
nell The engineer Of this project esti-
mates that by Strengthening the river
with cutoffs 1t will carry three times as
much water as before. There are eleven
cutoffs constructed at the present time.
The upper part of the Monona-Harri-
son ditch is forty-five feet wide at the
bottom and an average depth of eight
to ten feet, but when it gets down in
the middle of Monona county 1t widens
out to a fifty-foot base, with a top
seventy-five to eighty feet wide and
from ten to eighteen feet in depth, be-
low the surface Of the land. Some Of
the river cutoffs are deeper than this.
Cut by Dredge Boats.
This is all being dug by dredge boats.
In the cutoffs. 1aterals and small
bitches dredges with one large dipper
are used. There were three Of these
large machines running the last year.
They are the property Of the Coal
Construction Company Of Chicago.
which had the contract for the upper
section of the big ditch. On the lower
section may be seen the largest in
land dredge in the United States. It is
owned by the Faris-Kesl Construction
Company Of Boise, Idaho. This mann
moth machine. which cost over 100000,
digs with an endless chain of buckets,
each carrying one-third Of a yard of
material excavated. This chain con-
tains sixty-six buckets and makes a
complete revolution in a, minute, thus
excavating twenty-five cubic yards per
minute when running at full capacity.
This is dumped into hopper and is
carried out to the sides by conveyors.
Its rated capacity is $4,000 cubic yards
in twenty four hours. This machine is
running now and the work is being
rapidly pushed to completion. P. S.
Holbrook, of Des Moines, is the pres
ent engineer in charge of construct
ton