The Richfield recorder. (Richfield, Idaho) 1909-1931, 1914-05-14
Home-Making Opportunities
Facts About The SOIL Water Supply Clim
ate, People and Social Conditions On the Great
Idaho Irrigation Company Project

rigation Company has entered iLto
with the state and with the settlers,
the irrigation system is to become the
property of the land owners, to be con-
trolled and operated by them This
means that within a very few years
the farmers on the project will own
and control their water just as they
own and control the land on which
it is to be used, and the farm equip
ment used in it's civilization. This
arrangement not only gives the farm
er control over everything which has
elsewhere been considered a part Of
his farm. but also enables him to
control and regulate the application
of water. In this region precipitation
is never sufficient and in many other
regions water is not applied by nature
at the times and in the quantity nee
essary to produce maximum yields.
With this brief and general history
of the development up to this time.
let us now view the situation in more
detail from the standpoint of the
farmer. The experience of the past
three years has not only justified the
early predictions of the pioneers.
whose confidence was based upon ex-
perience under adverse conditions.
but has suggested possibilities not
heretofare anticipated.
The most important factor in the
development of this section is the
water supply which has been provid
ed, the sufficiency of which has not
and cannot be questioned. A brief
description of the reservoir and irri-
cation system cannot but impress one
with the firm foundation upon which
the future prosperity of this coun-
try is based.
The water supply consists Of ap
propriations amounting to 5000 sec
ond feet in the Big Wood river and
5000 second feet in the Little Wood
river. The normal flow of both these
streams is Insignificant during the
summer months, but during the early
spring the run-off from the melting
sinow in the foothills and mountains
make them veritable torrents. This Is
especially the case on Big Wood river
where IN immense reservoir has been
provided for the storage of the flood
waters. The reservoir was created by
the construction of the Magic dam. an
immense earthen structure built across
the narrow canon of the Big Wood riv-
er 30 miles mort of Shoshone
Immediately above the dam the
canon widens and forms an ideal res
ervoir site. The Magic dam, is built
entirely of earth being one Of the larg-
est dams of this type ever construct
ed. In construction the center por
ton was well puddled and rolled and
suitable cutoff trenches and sheet
piling bound it to the river bed and
canon walls.
,fx~1,
wide at the bottom 20 feet wide at the
top $50 feet long at the bottom. with
a total length on top, including a con-
Meeting dyke, of about 1000 feet. A
concrete spillway 400 feet long, over
which excess water is discharged in
to the canon below the dam, prevents
the water in the reservoir from rising
above an elevation IT ct below the
top of the dam.
When the water in the reservoir is
at spillway level it makes lake about
12 miles long and 8 miles wide at the
widest point, covering an area of about
5000 acres Water is discharged from
the reservoir as required through
concrete lined tunnel 760 feet long.
provided with gates at the upper END
and operated from the top of the con-
crete control tower las feet high In
average years the reservoir is filed
sometime between the first of April
and the first of June and from that
time until the first or fifteenth Of July
the natural flow of the stream fur
nishes sufficient water for irrigation
It is. therefore, not necessary to draw
on the reservoir supply until after Ju-
ly 1st
The lands under the project are
naturally divided into four tracts,
separated by rough rocky land. The
irrigation system is therefore, con-
structed and operated as four dis
tinct units. From the reservoir water
is discharged through the tunnel into
the bed of the river and is carried
distance of about miles where
portion Of it is diverted into the Rich
field canal for the Richfeld. Dietrich
and South Gooding tracts. The por-
tion diverted for the last two tracts
runs about IL miles in the Richfield
canal, where 1t is diverted into a
natural canal which conveys 1t dis
tance Of about IL miles to the Little
Wood river near Richfield. At this
point a portion is diverted into the
Dietrich canal for the irrigation of the
Dietrich tract and the remainder Is
carried distance Of about 80 miles
in the canal of the Little Wood river
where it is diverted into canal Tor
the irrigation of the lands on the
South Gooding tract
About Is miles below the reservoir 10
another diversion in the Big Wood
river which takes out the remainder
of the water into the North Gooding
canal which irrigates the lands north