Shoshone journal. [volume] (Shoshone, Idaho) 1884-1931, 1914-01-30
NO MIRAGE Of THE DESERT
BY EDWARD T. BARBER

BY EDWARD T. BARBER
Ten years ago practically ali OF
the available sites for irrigation
works in Idaho that could be handled
for less than 100000 had been ex-
hausted and Idaho had been hunting
for some years for the party who
could contribute the million dollars
necessary TO construct still greater
irrigation works than the old inhabi-
tants had ever dared TO dream.
The first irrigators naturally Sc
lected the locations where their sim
pie works could be most easily built
These were one man propositions and
each rancher built his own system.
After these easy spots" had been
about exhausted the ranchers would
band together and build works be
yond the means or ability Of any one
Of their number These private com
panies naturally followed the lead Of
their smaller neighbors and selected
the easy" spots first and tackled the
more difficult ones only as necessity
compelled them to do so.
Finally the locations within the
working means Of these private com
panies Of ranchers were all taken and
Idaho began looking for the man with
a million who was willing to risk it
III irrigation development under the
National laws, either the Carey Act
or the National Reclamation ser
vice.
The past ten years have witnessed
irrigation development under these
two laws beyond the widest dream
of the most optimistic booster of
those days.
The South Side Twin Falls project,
with he city Of Twin Falls as its
center, was the first Of the great pro-
jects to obliterate the desert and sup
plant it with the highest forms Of
civilization, farms, homes, cities and
villages, equipped with all. the most
modern conveniences.F . 4l4s, .-,s
1t was in June. 1903. that Bob Me-
Collum and Bert Perrine held the
first opening of Carey Act. lands in
this part of the Snake river valley
This. was held at shoshone. as that
was then. the nearest railroad poin
to the then site of the city of Twin
Falls. .'ss'ss .-vs -.ssss-1't-
BY making a diligent canvas of the
entire state and making a strong
personal appeal to their large circle
of personal friends to enter the draw
ing in order to prevent. its being a
FROST Ito its promoters they sue
ceeded in getting about forty persons
to enter their names for the drawing.
and as I. remember it, twenty-one
persons actually located on claims
Immediately around. the site of the
proposed town. Bob and Bert in urg-
ing their frienls to enter this draw
ing for land at S25 per acre argued
that they would guarantee that with
in five years the land would be worth
as much as $50 per acre The pres
ent home of Addison T. Smith is To-
Gated on one of the tracts secured by
him at the drawing
Within five years from the date Of
that shoshone drawing there was
scarcely an acre of the land taken
that day but was worth three hun
bred dollars an acre Now when such
men as Bob McCollum and Bert Per
rine, who agreed to guarantee the
land to be worth fifty dollars per
acre. under guessed its value to the
extent that they did it shows that
conditions in the Snake River valley
are beyond the powers Of the human
mind TO forsee or to control.
The year following the opening of /
the Twin Falls tract came the OPP I
ening of the NIinidoka project under 1
the Government Reclamation act and I
the valley from the mouth Of the Sal /
mon to the Minidoka rapids. the site
Of the government dam. distance