Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1917-04-13
Farmers in Lower Part of the Valley
Want Relief from the Floods
Destroying Crops
LARGE AREA IS ASSESSED
Hearing Will be Held Next Thursday
When Assessments Come Before
District Court

If one man lives on the upper part
of a stream and is flooded with water
and builds ditch which empt1es in
to a natural water course, and sees
no reason why he should bother his
head about the subsequent behavior
of that water even if it overfiows
land twenty or one hundred or
thousand miles below; while if an
other man lives on the lower part
of a stream and is flooded with wat
er and believes that the man up
above should help pay for ditch
that will take off the surplus water,
then here are the elements of a law
suit. And that in a rough kind of
way is the knotty problem on which
Judge S. A Flaherty will receive all
manner of advise from opposing
counsel at the hearing on the en-
gineer's and viewers reports of Con-
solidated Judicial Ditch No. 5 of
Grant. Traverse and Stevens coun-
ties, to be held here next week
Thursday, April 10.
When a case is before the court,
and especially a case Of such mag
nitude. it is presumptiOus and gross
ly improper for newspaper to at
tempt to influence the outcome in
any way. and for that reason, we de-
sire to caution our readers that
nothing in the following statement
should be understood as an attempt
on our part to influence the action
of, the court. Perhaps the caution
is unnecessary, but in a project of
this magnitude and involving the in
terests of so many people, it is we'll
for the public to understand how
improper in would be for this news
paper to assume to try the case
while it is before the court.
This is a most interesting project.
Altogether there are about 700
square miles in the Mustinka River
basin, and in one way or another,
about 500 square miles are affected
by this project making the most
comprehensive drainage project ever
undertaken in this state, and withal,
one of the kind that drainage enthu-
siasts have been agitattng for-One
comprehensive system instead Of a
lot of patchwork.
The map printed herewith shows
a goodly portion of the Mustinka
River basin, drained by the Muslin
ka River and it's principal tribut-
aries, the Twelve Mile Creek and the
Five Mile Creek. ThruOut this district
numerous drainage bitches have
been constructed ESQ many, in fact,
that it became confusing to try to
put them all on the mapD Local
residents can readily trace the
course of County Ditch No. l in
Donnelly township that empties into
Twelve Mile Greek, of the Everglade
ditch and it's branches that finds
the same outlet. Further west,
there is one in Traverse county that
drains as far south as part Of Big
Stone county, and further north
there are bitches coming down from
Grant county. All these bitches
dump their waters into the Muslin
ka River or it's tributaries, and pro-
duce a flood Cor rather, is alleged
to produce an alleged foOd) of the
farm lands in the townships of
< Redpathand MonsOn where the Mus
tinka River makes big bend east of
Wheaton Some times the volume of
water in this bend becomes so great
that the river has been known to
break away to the north into the
Rabbit River and thus on to the
Red River. To remedy this cOndi-
ton, it is now proposed to build
the cutoff shown on the map run
ming from where the Mustinka River
starts making the loop thence due
west across the courses of the Twelve
Mile Creek and the Five Mile Greek
until Bender's Coulee is reached
whence the water would again reach
the river near it's outlet into Lake
Traverse.
The present project is known as
consolidated Ditch No. 5" because
it is a consolidation of Judicial Ditch
No. 3 Of Grant and Stevens counties
and Judicial Ditch No. Of Grant
and Traverse counties. Judicia,
Ditch No. 8 started south and east
of Moose Island in Stevens county
and thence took a general westerly
course past Herman to the Traverse
county line.
The starting Of the Consolidated
! Ditch No. of Stevens, Grant ant
Traverse counties was in the neigh
borhood of Herman in Grant county
to get relief from the conditions ex
listing there and the petition of Jud
icial Ditch No. 3 of Grant and Stew