Philip weekly review and Bad River news. [volume] (Philip, Stanley County, S.D.) 1912-1918, 1914-02-12
AN INTERESTING CHAPrIR

AHc uOuOic-cFOSS CnAC StHu-
ley county received from the
present state administration
forms an interesting chapter in
the history Of this section of
South Dakota The whole per
formance reeks with the stencil
OF meffeniency and downright
dishonesty The whole story is
too long to be told in all it's de-
tails. A summary is enough: Dan
Blerwagon, who is something of
geologist, has for many years
advocated an irrigation project
that would take it's water supply
from the Cheyenne river near
Buffalo Gap, have its storage re
servoir in Whitewater basin in
the Bad Lands. and its system of
distribution spread ont over the
broad prairies of Stanley county.
The scheme finally attracted
statewide notice and was at
lenghth investigated by Samuel
Lee, our former state engineer.
That official was so much i'm
pressed with the feasibility of
the project that he embodied
recommendation for a prelmin-
AIRY survey i'm his annual report
to the governor. The matter
came before the last Legislature
for an appropriation and encOunt
ed strong opposition from the
districts east of the river. Our
entire delegation worked hard.
and, after several defeats the ap-
preparation was secured. The pro
ject encountered it's first set
back, however, when Governor
Byrne, for purely political rea
sons, refused to reappoimt Mr..
lee state engineer. No one had
ever questioned the state en-
gineer's 8 ability In fact Sam Lee
will always have standing as
monument to his ability the best
state house ever constructed for
six hundred thousand dollars
in the United States. But,
as we have said, there pol
itical reasons. A pro-
fessor of the state college
at Brookings, who has built no
state houses, by the way, or had
other practical experience so far
as we can learn, was appointed
in Lee S place. The new engineer,
Mr.. Deer, soom after his appoint
ment commenced work on the
Bierwagon irrigation project. His
procedue was unique, to say the
least. The writer is not an en-
gineer Some good authorities i'm
that profession have intimated
rather strongly that our good
friend, the Brookings professor,
ism t an engineer, either, But we
let that pass. This is what Mr..
Deer did: First he spent several
weeks with a group of students,
on vacation from Brookings
school, surveying the basin which
was to serve as the reservoir.
1t was not wholly inappropriate
that the students should be en-
ployed; for an intelligent school
boy could stand on the rim Of
the basin, note that it was
natural depression in the earth s
surface, observe that it would
hold water if a very narrow
drainage outlet were plugged up,
and see also that it would hold
enough water to irrigate half of
Stanley county, if once filled.
Secondly, Mr.. Deer set a crew
Of surveyors at work surveying
laterals or distribution bitches
over the western part Of Stanley
Co. Observe that 50 far Mr..
Deer had done nothing to dis
cover whether or not he could
get any water to fill his reoer-
voir or flow through his bitches.
1t must have occurred to someone
that water would be needed for
successful irrigation; for about
III Ah:~n 49, <N>~t