The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1916-01-14
VALUABLE PUBLICITY.

ISSAt"AA4Cu al tlCicS CONcTlu6 dlIuO6L Tie
entire northwest. The Oregonian is
one Of the most Influential daily pa
pers In the United States, and enjoys
a very large circulation. Statements
made by or through the Oregonian
carry weight and conviction with its
readers. Probably in no publication on
the coast could greater or more valu-
able publicity be secured for any sec
tton desiring or requiring public no.
tice, than through tue Oregonian and
that is more especially the case in an
edition. of the character of this new
years publication, which goes into
thousands of homes besides those of
the regular subscribers.
The West Okanogan Valley Irriga-
tion district and the town of Oroville
and Tonasket received valuable adver-
tising through the medium of the Ore
gonian special edition. w. F. Graham,
immigration agent of the Great Nor
thern railway, who has done and is
doing. yoeman service In his efforts
to attract settlers to the rare oppor-
tunities to be met with in northern
Okanosan county under the irrigation
system, furnished the article that ap-
peared in the Oregonian, and it is so
we'll worth repeating that it is here
given In its entirety. We can only add
that the enterprise that Mr.. Graham
mentions is SO far along in the way of
construction that II will require only
few weeks In the spring to finish it,
and water will be turned on in ample
time for irrigation next summer. The
proposition Is one that every seeker
after a alocaticn should investigate af
ter reading what the press has to say
about It:
Utilization Of the waters OF the
Simtlkamcen river, tributary of
the Okanogan, which In turn Is an i'm
portant tributary Of the Columbia
river, will reclaim ten thousand acres
Of feYdie land In Northern Okanogan
county, Wash. Construction work
is far advanced, being about IS per
cent completed, with the assurance of
completion Of the entire system be-
fore the 1916 irrigetion season begins.
This project, the largest of its kind
in Washington or Oregon, under active
construction at the present time, is
the West Okanogan Valley Irrigation
district project, the headquarters of
which are at the town of Oroville in
Northern Okanogan county. The lands
embraced in the project form narrow
strip on either side Of the Okanogan
river and the Great Northern rail-
ways Wenatchec branch road, begin
ming at the international boundary
line and extending south to below the
town of Tonasket, about 20 miles.
Water is derived by gravity from
the Similkameen liver, sometimes call
ed the Smiling Similkameen" from
its picturesqueness, flowing as it does
through the beautiful British Columbia
valley of that name. The intake with
massive steel gates, is near the town
of Nighthawk, about IL miles above
Oroville. The entire system embraces
SO miles Of canal, flume, pipe and
syphon construction. There are 80
miles Of open canal, "a miles of flume
and six miles of pipe and syphons
Passengers on passing trains can see
almost the entire system, as the canal
and fumes winds its way around the
hillsides of the Similkameen and the
| Okanogan valleys. The main f1ume is
eight feet wide, and Il team and wagon
could be driven through it for miles
McDougall & Co., whose western head
quarters are in Portland, are the con-
tractors, and d. c. Henney, irrigation
engineer of Portland, is constructing
engineer of the project.
The contract was awarded on July
9TH last an dpreliminary work only was
done during July and August. In Sep
tember the contractors got started in
earnest and since then have had about
500 men and 200 teams and a steam
| shovel actively engaged Six million
feet of lumber, comprising over 200
car loads, was resuired, and this had
to be cut and shipped in
1t is genuine cooperative develop
ment project. there being no large
land ownership interested. Local resi-
dents and owners of land under the
proposed project formed themselves
into an irrigation district under the
state law. Officers were chosen and
surveys made, and after engineers had
reported favorably on the project an
election was held and bond issue of
100000 was voted, which covers the
contract price and engineering and
| other expenses. The contractors ar
] ranged to take the bonds In payment