The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1910-10-14
WORK soon TO
Be RESUMED

A railroad. from bdTD6TIOu 10 d
point rs miles up the canyon of the
Boise river to handle supplies and
building materials for big dam the
reclamation service is planning to
construct across the Boise, may be
reality if the present plans of the
service, said to have been satisfac-
torily reported on by the board of
army engineers that visited Idaho
recently, go through.
The construction of the dam is for
the purpose of impounding flood
waters to be used in the gigantic
storage system that the reclamation
service is endeavoring to work out
for the benefit of the Payette-Boise
project. Once these reservoirs are
created it will be practically impos-
sible for the lands under the pro-
ject to be without water during any
period of the irrigation season and
will make it possible for additional
lands to be included in the segrega-
ton to be watered.
For the past year and half sur
veyors and engineers of the reclama-
ton service have been carefully go
ing over the ground on the upper
Boise river working out their plans
for the storage reservoir system. In
large measure these plans have
been perfected and the service is
therefore prepared to take action to-
wards starting work under them.
Difficult Problem.
The problem of taking supplies
and material to the site Of the new
dam has been a difficult ono to
solve. There is at present a spur of
the Oregon Short Line into Barber
ton and this was extensively used
while the big mill of the Barber
Lumber company was in operation.
Since the mill closed down for an
indefinite period, said to be due to
the litigation instituted against the
company by the government to an
null title to $4,000 acres of timber
land, the railroad line has been used
very little. A survey for an extern
sion to the line from Barberton up
the Boise river is reported to have
been made by the reclamation SER
vice and an easy grade found for the
proposed extension. II installed it
will be possible to forward freight
from this city up the river, a dis
tance of between 25 and 80 miles,
and by SO doing save a great ex-
pense that would otherwise have 10
be met in teaming the freight.
The reclamation service has been
working very quietly on it's reser-
voir plans. It's engineers are said to
have located a number of very i'm
portant sites and devised a plan by
which the food waters that have
been allowed to flow to waste can be
stored and held until the latter part
of the irrigation season.
Enlarge Canal.
In order to prepare the New York
canal for the reception of the addi-
tional volume of water that will be
diverted into it several large con-
tracts were let recently by the ser
vice to contractors, who now have
many men and teams working on
the old canal widening and deepen
ing 1t. These contractors are hand
ling large amount of dirt and have
widened the canal for a considerable
distance.
Estimated Cost.
The reclamation service has never
given out for publication the definite
figures covering the cost of the pro-
posed reservoir system. The esti-
mates were placed in the hands OF
the recent delegation of army engi-
neers and are reported to have been
approved. 1t is believed that a fair
share of the $2O,OO0,OOO issues
made possible by the last congress
will be used for the completion of
the upper Boise river plans.
An estimated cost OF the reservoir
system is between 100000 and
$S,OOO,OO0. Tho system could fur
nish 100000 or more acre feet of
water. 1t will DO possible then to
irrigate 243, 900 acres of fertile land
in western Idaho.
Some of this land has full water
supply now from tho Deer Flat res
ervoir. The balance will wait until
the completion of the storage system
up the Boise river.
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