Mountain Home Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1915-1946, 1921-06-25
SURVEY CONTRACT
Signed BY OFFICIAL
Of GOVERNMENT
Work to Be Started on Sur
vey of Canal Within Very
Short Time and Finished
This Fall.

Favorable action on the part of
the secretary of the interior regard
ing the survey of the canal route
from the American Falls dam and
the investigation as to the area to
be reached on the Mountain Home
project, has assured that the sur
yey will be commenced within a
short time and that it will be push
ed to completion as rapidly as ii is
possible for the reclamation service
to complete lit. r. r. Walter, acting
chief engineer OF the reclamation
service, last week advised the Boise
Chamber of Commerce that the con-
tract had been signed.
The letter reads as follows:
you are advised that the first
assistant secretary of the interior,
e. c. Finney, has approved con-
tract with your organization for the
survey work in the vicinity of Noun
tain Home, Ida.
''In accordance with paragraph II
of the contract, it is required that
you deposit with THE special fiscal
agent at Denver the $4,000 re-
auired.
The receipt of this letter concludes
an agreement between tine Boise
Chamber of Commerce and the ma
tional government through the recla-
NATION service for survey to devel-
op the possibility and feasibility of
the lands in the vicinity
of Mountain Home for agricultural
purposes.
The contract provides for a gem
eral plan of Investigations and sur
veys to be jointly agreed upon be-
tween the representatives of the
United States reclamation service
and the Boise Chamber off Commerce.
Aid from Ada and Elmore counties,
the State of Idaho and citizens of
Mountain Home, amounting to ap-
proximately so per cent of the sum,
has been pledged.
IThLa balance under the contract
will be from money in the hands of
the reclamation service appropriated
for the purpose.
There is a very general feeling in
Mountain Home that this attempt to
secure water for our lands is being
made in the right manner, and is
destined to be successful. All previ- |
Gus attempts, extending over a pc
riod of thirty-four years, were made
by private capital, and while most
of them were honest enough, no cap
italislt could ever be interested who |
had command of sufficient funds to
accomplish the bringing of water to
our lands. In 1887 Kemp Van Ee,
an English mining man, and at that
TIME the most powerful capitalist in
the West, and commanding figure
in mining activities, came to Noun
tain Home and with the help of To-
cal people organized an irrigation
Local difficulties arose,
and the company was abandoned.
Following this another private COM
pany was floated to construct the
present Rattlesnake reservoir, but
was accomplished until 1891
when A. W. Hager of Chicago paid
d visit to Mountain Home. He or
ganized an irrigation company of
Chicago capitalists and their en-
gineers laid out very elaborate
plan for mitigation. At that time the
storage of flood water was in its
infancy, and he data at the COM
mand of engineers was very meagre,
which accounts for the fact that
their hopes were pitched too high.
The dam was completed early in
1892, and on June IT, 1892, there
was held in Mountain Home dedica-
.ory exercises for the reservoir. This
was the greatest ever
held in this city. The governors
guard band of Boise furnished music
and cannon was fired at frequent
intervals during the day. A process
sion of rs teams, headed by the band
and a number of distinguished vis-
itors, paraded to Lake Elmore, to
view that body of water. The trip
was marred by a thunder storm, a
thing OF very unusual occurrence III