The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1921-01-06
IRRIGABLE LANDS OF
ROOSEVELT COUNTY
In State Pamphlet-"One Of
the Greatest"

The Montana state board of Rail
road commissioners and ex-ohicio Ir
rigation Commission has issued it:
annual report that covers the subject
of Irrigation in Montana exhaus
lively by projects and by counties
The part relating to Roosevelt coun-
ty is copied below. 1t is quite sur
prising to know that the county has
111,000 acres of irrigable land. In
a later issue the statistics of McCone
county, given in the pamphlet, will be
published.
Roosevelt County
Roosevelt county in the northeast
ern part of Montana with North Da-
kota on its east and the Missouri
river on its south, has great posi-
bilities for irrigation. It has 1856
square miles of territory located at
an altitude of 1000 feet above sea
level and gets an average of 1875
inches of rainfall per annum.
Mondak, a town of 2O3 people,
Culbertson with BAT people, Balm
vile with 296 people, Froid with 40
people, Wolf Point with zoos people
and Poplar with 1892 people are
the important towns. Stock raising
and farming are the important in
dustries; grains, hay and vegetables
are grown successfully. The main
line of the Great Northern railway
and a branch north from Bainville
furnish good rail transportation. The
chief markets are Great Falls, st.
Paul and Minneapolis. The Theodore
Roosevelt highway follows the Great
Northern main line.
The county assessor has $4,000 of
irrigated land on his books, S4,SS?,-
1913 of non-irrigated land and ST.
210,524 of grazing land. The total
assessed valuation, excluding rail
roads, telephone and telegraph lines
IS s13,689,363.
The Fort Peck Indian reservation
les partly in the county and the Fl.
Peck Indian reclamation project is
developing $4,000 acres of irrigated
and Of that area A fuller discus
ion of this project is found in an
section of this report.
Since the Poplar river, which flows
.outh through the county, will be
in full by the Federal pro-
ect, private irrigation along it is i'm
possible. The Big Muddy Greek is
-lso appropriated by the Reclamation
Service, but several tributaries on
IS east bank will develop storage for
considerable irrigation. The largest
ield for irrigation lines is the Mis-
ouri bottom from the mouth of the
Big Muddy to Mondak. A strip of
and averaging a mile wide and 25
long is largely irrigable here.
The soil is a clay loan and quite fer
lie. This area can be irrigated by
gravity system from che river in
it all in a district, or by a
Of small pumping plants. A
installation to irrigate so
ores will be built in 1921 a few
niles west of Mondak. Twelve thou
and acres are irrigable along the
A small amount of private devel-
pment has been done recently on
ONE of the ~coulees in the eastern
art of the county. Five thousand :
ores "a be irrigated by utilizing +:
he food waters of these channels. A =:
ecently completed concrete weir on
little Muddy in Township % North /:
.ange. SO East furnishes storage for :
so acres.
In all, Roosevelt County has ILL., F.:
90 acres of irrigable land. The in :
rease in assessed valuation of about /:
dollars per acre will total $4,- f:
10000. Roosevelt County bids fair +:
0 rank as one of the greatest pro- /:
ucers in the state. :