The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1913-07-10
Plan TO CREATE
A GREAT RIVER
Western Banker Would Reclaim
Arid Lands by Channel.

BLACK HILLS TO C|MARRON.
Originator Of Scheme Suggests Use of
| Panama Canal Machinery In Digging
Course Of the Stream Across Vast
! Plains-Many Interested In Project,
| Results Outlined.
| Much interest has been created in
the west by the suggestion of J. C.
Hopper, president of a bank at Ness
| City, KAN. that a new artificial river
be created through the great arid
plains of western South Dakota, Ne
braska, Kansas and Oklahoma.
! The plan in brief is to use the Pan
anna canal machinery to dig a river
running from the Black Hills in South
Dakota to the Cimarron river in Okla
! homa. crossing other rivers on via
ducts This in itself is a stupendous
undertaking. but one that could be ac-
complished. By emptying into the
| Cimarron river, which in turn pours
its waters into the Arkansas lust
| above Tulsa, Okla. the matter of navi-
eating the Arkansas would be helped
to great degree. as it would double
| the volume of water in that river.
The Rocky mountains, 600 miles
| west of the main channel. form the
| source and west watershed terminus
of the Missouri river, the largest and
| longest tributary of the Mississippi.
Paralleling these mountains is broad
plain 300 miles wide by 700 miles long,
| containing 100000 square miles of the
richest, deep. fertile soil to be found in
America.
Almost Desert.
This vast area, now the home of the
jack rabbit, prairie dog and the prairie
| wolves, with its eastern border dotted
| with farms and cattle ranches and the
cunning American pushing over it's
broad expanSe. attempting to carve
! out homes, presents a panorama only
appreciated 10y those who have travel.
ed over the territory.
Here is an empire, rich in every ele-
| ment that goes to make up happy and
prosperous American homes, save only
-water-yet the average rainfall of
! eighteen inches, added to the annual
| freshets Of the accumulated winter
| SHOWS that race down through this
country on the way to the sea. carries
| death and destruction for those who
live on a half million acres Of low
| lands. If these flood waters could be
stopped in this semiarid region and
used for irrigation. chaos would be
turned into order, destruction into
helpfulness.
! If plan can be inaugurated to hold
these flood waters this vast territory,
now containing but three people to the
square mile, now producing only rough
feed for cattle, would invite twenty
five more people to the square mile
from the crowded east, turn hundreds
of thousands of American consumers
into producers and thus reduce the
high cost of living
| Here is territory comparatively lev
ell, where whole congressional town.
ships can be turned into one field with
out the loss of an acre. Sections of
land are so level that, standing upon
one corner, man can be seen on any
part Of the section. Yet the engineers
compass reveals the fact that as you
approach the mountains the increase
in elevation is seven feet to the mile
This rise in elevation, together with
the smooth treeless surface, conveys
very rapidly the rains that fall into the
small rivulets. hurrying the water east
on its way to death and destruction.
Flood Prevention.
It has been amply demonstrated that
channel Improvement alone for flood
! prevention is failure: that dikes can
not be built high enough or strong
enough to confne the waters to their
natural channels. 1t is time to turn to
something else-that is, the construc-
ton of reservoirs into which the sur
| plus water may be turned and from
which it may be taken for the purpose
Of irrigating the dry lands and for
making power, universal need in the
industry of the country.
Build a system of artificial lakes,
beginning at the Black Hills, in South
Dakota, extending through the states
of Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma.
made by the damming of the numerous
streams traversing this country; con-
meet these lakes by an artificial river
Thus flood in the north can be con-
veyed down this great canal, distribut-
ed into the different lakes and reser-
voirs so formed, thus using the once
dreaded and destructive food waters
for the service of man, while the low
land farmer tills his soil without fear
of mOlestation.
The dams constructed across the sew
eral rivers would be so arranged as to
let the water pass as needed to regu-
late the channels Of navigable rivers,
thus promoting commerce - the wa
ter needed passes through the en-
gineer's aperture in the dam power