The Garland globe. [volume] (Garland, Utah) 1906-191?, 1914-01-24
ALBERT r. BARNES.

Thos. r. Cutler in an interview
said recently:
The subject of the great Bear River
valley is a theme that requires the
pen of great writer rather than one
of a mere practical onlooker who has
only been identified with its growth
since 1901.
The first area surveyed was settled
in about 1850 by some early Mormons
on the east side of the valley. Dur
ing the completion of the Central Pa.
cific railroad in 1869, other towns
were built, the principal one being
Corinne, which was for some time an
important freighting terminus for
towns in Idaho and Montana, until
the Utah Il Northern railroad (now
the Oregon Short Line) was built
north into these states. Since the
Lucin cutoff has been built the old
Central Pacific line is USED only for
local purposes.
When irrigation was first applied by
the early settlers on the east SIDE
they all Helped themselves to the
mountain streams without iet or hind.
rance and butt private bitches for the
purposes, after which systems were
established and controlled by incor.
porated companies and water began to
acquire a wonderfully increased value.
In the late eighties and early nine.
Cies most important and elaborate
irrigation system was built for the
purpose of using waters OF the Bear
river This system was conceived by
Droad-mlnded men who saw the pos,
sibilities of the future, but it was TOO
early Tor its inception, in fact the
price at which the first water rights
were sold would not pay even running
expenses without anything for it's
stockholders and bondholders, and no
one can help realizing that the orig
inal investors were led astray by fig
ures that did not prove correct. The
original cost OF the canal system being
about three million dollars, and even
then 1t was only partially completed.
From its source, in the mountain
lakes OF Summit county, Utah, to
where 1t empties into the Great Salt
Lake, the Bear river is 300 miles long,
and it has the distinction OF being the
longest river on the continent whose
water does not enter the sea.
The Great Bear lake, one.haif or
which is in Utah and the other half
In Idaho, is one of the most admirable
lakes for the storage of water, being
iully one mile in elevation higher
than the Bear River valley. The tu.
ture possibilities of the conservation
OF water in that lake for irrigation
purposes has not been fully appreci-
ated. Several attempts have been
made to raise the lake, or to draw
from it at the low water mark in the
river The Utah-Idaho Sugar COM
pahy itself has spent considerable
money in buying rights of way for a
canal to connect the lake with the
river, but 1t remained for the Utah
rover Light company to set in mo-
tlon the principle of pumping water
from the lake during the low water
periods, and they are now spending
huge sums with that end in view and
building and equippins electric power
plants on the Bear river to supply the
further increasing demands for power
and light.
l am reminded by an extract from
the Soil Survey of the Bear River
Area written in 1905, which contains
this clause: Before the Bear river
canal was built, considerable dry farm
in was carried on, but it has since
been practically abandoned in favor
Of the safer method of irrigation"
From 1905 to probably 1909 this may
have been true to q certain extent,
since which great many of the
slopes on both the eastern and west
ern sides Of the valley are being used
for dry farms with very good results
indeed, and | understand as high as
forty bushels to the acre of grain is
being raised by the more intensified
system of dry farming.
In the same pamphlet that | have
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