The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1919-02-18
COMBINING ALL THE HUGE PROJECTS in
TASK OF RECLAIMINC SNAKE RIVER PLAINS
How the Master Minds of Idaho and Reclamation
Service Propose to Harness Waste Waters
in Greatest Irrigation Works of World
CONGRESS TO DECIDE MATTER SOON

Reclamation in Idaho has taken
on new meaning in the past few
weeks. Idaho had big projects that
were dreamed Of, but it was not un-
till just recently that there began
to take form some plans for combin-
ing them all in one grand, compre-
hensive system under the slogan born
of the war, "All for each and each
for ALL"
Plans of Master Minds
The big, broad-minded men of
Idaho now propose to unite their
energies for the accomplishment of
all the dreams concerning all the
reclamation schemes from the Dubois
project at the upper expanse Of the
Snake river plains to the low, warm
table lands Of the Owyhee.
The Dubois Project
The Dubois project includes all
the upper reaches of the Snake river
plains from the Egin bench and
Crater butte westward to the Birch
creek plains and sinks of both Lost
rivers. 1t extends south-westward
but short distance in it's original
draught, but it is now proposed to
extend it in the direction of Ameri-
can Falls and Minidoka to the limit
of it's feasibility now being deter
mined by consulting the geological
and other surveys, and yet to be
furthed determined by special sur
veys of the civil engineers.
The Other Projects
The other projects reaching from
American Falls westward include the
plains of Owinza, an expanse of fifty
or sixty miles between Snake river
and the Wood river valley, and
farther westward the great semi-arid
plains in the region of Mountain
Home, Sunnyside and in the county
of oyyhee.
Great Plain of Mysteries
The Snake river valley has been a
land of mysteries for a hundred years
but the experts in the various gov
ernment surveys and recognizance,
geographic, geodetic, geologic, hydro
graphic, coupled with the findings of
the boards of experts Of electrical
and reclamation engineers acting for
private interests, together with the
discoveries Of pioneers who have
drilled wells at intervals all over
these sombre wastes, have laid its
secrets open so they may be under
stood by the student as he views
them thru his glass darkly.
Land Of the Hidden Rivers
Snake river in it's sweep thru
Idaho for 500 miles, from Chester
at an elevation Of 5000 feet, to
Payette, some 1900 feet above the
sea level, has no open tributary on
the right bank, yet there is con-
slant increase In the volume Of Its
waters. On its left bank from the
Crater butte at the junction Of the
north and south forks Of Snake river
to the Oxbow tunnel below Weiser,
a distance Of over 800 miles, the few
tributaries feeding it, turn In less
water than is taken out by irrigators
yet it increases in volume at low
water season all the way from
Blackfoot to the sea, and all the way
from. Blackfoot to where 1t passes
out Of Idaho.
| Race Of Subterranean Waters
| Wierd and strange, this land OF
mysteries Is getting to be under.
stood. The rivers that sink on the
plains adjacent to the Lost river and
Salmon river mountains furnish the
water for the underground rivers
that travel under and thru the
stratified lavas, roaring, pouring
gurgling, moaning, seeping perco.
latinS, travelling at all speeds from
that Of the torrent In chasms to the
mere drops that seep, taking weeks
years or decades to reach the bed OF
the Snake river, where it Joins the
parent stream Of the great drain
age basin that is parched in the vast
| a,rfaco QYDanaA near the core