The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1910-07-15
How the Settlers Lost in the Race for Temporary
Failure Followed by Preparations for the Sege-Every
body on the Water Wagon---Peope Go Ten Miles for
Drink, and Twenty Miles to Vote Against Saloon.
College Girl Slept the RverAnoher Escapes Death by Fire.
Men who Might Quit but for the Herones at Their SdesSome
Want Employment BackfooPck and Courage ndomtabe
Whole Families and the Team Would Accept Job

: FOrty-fOur miles northwest {
Blackfoot as the road runs is tn
Root Hog Ford, (dry) crossing G
(the bed of Lost river.
Twelve miles to the southwark /
Cerogrande, (grand scene), sMtcl
on the Salmon river branch from
which may be had fine view of tn
Big Butte.
Ten miles to the southwestward il
a strip of lava groupings is Powell
tation named in honor of G. Washing
ton Powell, pioneer who attempted
to do some farming in connection
with his stage station at the Rock
house on the river bank in 1894.
To the northward from the ford
strtching away to the foot of the
mountains thirty miles distant and
reaching also about four or five miles
| to the southwark, is the Powell tract,
a magnificent piece of agricultural
land embracing about eighty thousand
acres. (See map page 81.
Sixty to eighty miles northwest
ward in the upper reaches of the val
ley of Big Lost river, where that
stream sweeps through great gorge
or narrows from which. the valley
widens both above and below, is the
Mackay dam now in course of con-
struction to impound the great vol
ume Of waters that have always f1ow-
ed away and wasted during the
spring freshets, as have also the wa
ters of the autum and winter
Adjacent to the northwest corner
of the tract is the valley of Lite Lost
river slanting toward it, and pouring
crystal river into a vast alluvial
fan by which it is swallowed up and
lost.
Just across ridge or spur of
mountains north of the northeast cor
ner of the tract, is the Birch Creek
valley through which flows another
river in a courageous attack upon
the alluvial fan that spreads out in
magnificent distances in it's union
with the Snake river plains, and here
also flows river that is lost.
Leaving all these fertile valleys
with their beautiful farms and luxu-
RANT homes, we direct the readers |
attention to the Powell tract and the
heroic struggle now being carried on
by settlers to unite the elements ne
cessary to create wealth and comfort
on a forbidding plain.
The civil war lasted for four years,
and in every hour of that destructive
struggle 1t was certain that somebody
was going to fail-that somebody was
going to lose all and yield all.
For four years this other struggle
has been going on for the mastery
If the elements. The engineers corps
in many places, the rattle
and grind of grading machinery, the
booming of blasts, the crash of the
steam shovel and the roar as train
loads of gravel were dashed into po-
sition from the trestles, told the
story of the slow but winning strug-
gle.
The spring of 1910 saw practically
he whole of the tract passing from
public domain to private ownership
via the homebuilder. Hundreds of
niles of canals and lateral bitches
,heckered the tract, and connected
he farms via the natural channel
With the reservoir. The big dam, the
'verfow (safety channels) the diver
zion tunnels and the bi-furcationl
works were completed or were taking
orm SO it seemed certain that
he immense volume of spring freshetI
would be impounded for use or the
he new farms in July and August. Il
Notices had been sent to the settlers
hat water for irrigation would be
eady by the first of May, and scores
# families from Iowa, Illiniis, Ne
'raska, the Dakotas and the State of
settled upon the land,
ringing with them carloads of furn-
ture, agricultural implements and
'ure bred stock.
AS the work on the dam progressed
seemed to depend upon
ompleting the core and connecting
he work at certain point before
he flow of high water came. They
eld the water back; the warm wealth
+ came on sooner than usual; and