White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1933-02-02
HOW IRRIGATION
CAME TO VALLEY
Continued from last week.


Keand, an abstractor at Prosser, was
active in buying land in this valley
from the state and reselling it at
small profit, when possible. Several
sections were thus sold to w. r. Todd
and j. w. Cover of Tacoma. These men
began the selling of part OF their
holdings and plated the original town
of White Bluffs, just below what is now
the F. E. Taylor place.
AS the bulk of the Hanford company
holdings were in the lower part OF the
valley. it was but natural that the pro-
moters would want the main town IN
the valley located there. The orlglnai
town of White Bluffs was purchased by
that company from Todd and Cover
and set aside and never used as
toWnsite.
Since the Hanford company was prl-
vately owned, it could irrigate such
lands as it chose and refuse to furnish
water for other lands. For time this
condition caused considerable specula-
ton and worry on the part of land
owners in the upper part of the valley.
It was at this time that Fred M. We'll
came into the valley, arriving by boat
from Kennewick with several carloads
of ditch outfit for Allen 81 McKeever,
who had the contract for the digging
of the main canal of the Hanford COM
pany. The steamer Todd brought the
outfit up the river and the first camp
was established just below Coyote
Rapids. The trip up the river was be-
gun on November 6, 1906 Mr.. and
Mrs A. E. Burdin were passengers,
bringing in winters supply of provis-
ions 10 their newly purchased ranch in
fhe Klondyke district, northeast OF
White Bluffs. The heavily laden boat
| only reached Ringold the first day.
In the spring of 1907 We'll moved his
ditch headquarters to the Helsom place
near the White Bluffs ferry landing.
After learning that White Bluffs might
be abandoned in favor of a town In the
lower part of the valley, We'll secured
an option on 900 acres owned by Hell
som and Chapman of Lewiston, Idaho
and went to Tacoma and Seattle where
he organized a $4,000 corporation
among friends and some of the stock
holders in the Hanford company He
was made manager of the corporation
and after returning to the valley plat
| ted and began the building of the old
town of White Bluffs near the ferry
landing.
To furnish irrigation water for the
plated acreage around the toWnsite,
the construction Of gas producer out
fit for pumping water from the river
was begun in May, 1907. Before compile
ton, the plant burned but was rebuilt
and the first water was delivered thru
the pipe lines to the tracts in the fall
| of 1907. The name of this company
was the White Bluffs Land 81 Irriga-
ton company
| Later a second company, the White
Bluffs Irrigation Company, was pro-
NOTED by George A. Todd and associ-
ates This plot of land, comprising
some 300 acres, was north and west of
the townsite. A second gas producer
pumping plant was built near that Of
the White Bluffs Land Irrigation COM
any, and water delivered to the land
| in the summer of 1908
As has already been recited in this
history, the promoters of the White
Bluffs Irrigation company after year
or two found the method of operation
impractical and entered into a deal
with the Hanford company to furnish
water to the land the White Bluffs r.
rigation Company had agreed to serve.
The water for this land was taken from
the main Hanford canal west of the
Tanning ranch. through what is known
as the White Bluffs pipe line.
The White Bluffs Land 81 Irrigation
project continued to operate until a
| few years ago. After the P. P. g. L.
| Company had built it's lines in the val
ley, the gas producer outfit was dis
carded and the pumping plant operat-
ed by electrical power through a loo
horsepower motor Some of the tracts
under the project were never irrigated
others we're abandoned after few
years of irrigation and still others with
drew from the project and were water
ed from other sources. The acreage still
| taking water from the pumping plant
finally became SO small 1t was no long
er economical to operate the plant and
1t was abandoned about three years
ago, the landowners sinking wells or
their tracts and securing their water
from individual pumping plants
(To Be Continued