The people's voice., 1948-10-08
Missouri Valley in General

Missouri Valley in General
1. Inclusive of 30,621 square miles of North anC
South Dakota which drains into Hudson Bay bu
is dependent on Missouri river for a supplemental
water supply, the for co-ordinated developmen
is $50 256 square miles, eighteen per cent of con
tinental United States.
2. Internal population is 100000 to 8,OOO OOC
people, while 100000 to 14,OOO,OOO persons will
be directly effected by large scale development
g. Primary settlement began 140 years ago and
completed 30 years ago. Because of newness
in civilzng influences there is still serious short
age of scientific information upon which to base de-
veopment plans.
A. Business activity is primarily agricultural
with characteristics of social instability The need
is large scale development, industrializaton,
and better balanced economy.
5. Topography is extremely varied with an un-
derlyng geology that exposes all the strata back to
Tertiary Cenozoic.
g. Other than on isolated tracts soils are gener
ally fertile and we'll adapted to such cultivation as
climatic conditions permit The lower one-third of
the valley is semi-humid to humid; the upper two
thirds sem-arid to arid. An estimated 5,123,000
acres is now irrigated. Approximately 57.754. 900
of tilable dry land in the upper twothrds of
the valley be bettered by artificial water appl
cation to the extent that water supply be made
available
T. In the eastern half of the valley, transporta-
tion facilities can be rated adequate. In the west
ern half there is generally sufficient east and west
transportation but not enough facilities from north
to south. few sparsely settled in the west
ern half have transportation lines other than sec
ond class access roads. Economic progress is ser-
ousy handicapped by excessive and discriminatory
freight rates applicable to the upper two-hrds of
the valley
8. Locality climatic averages are: temperature
1916 to 55.2 degrees annual precipitation 1418 to
SO SO inches clear days 153 to 185 yearly humidity
semi-arid to semi-humid, winds ftfu to persistent
in time and gentle to moderate in intensity visibility
good to excellent and growing season 100 to 1876
days.
Water Supply
9. Volume of water supply is the key to kind
and extent of future Missouri Valley development.
Determinations of volume and sources of future
supply only be approximated yet Old stream
flow records too scattered and fragmentary,
while records started and gradually built up since
about 1880 cover too short period. All necessary
are handicapped by wide variations
in annual stream flow, insufficient weather records
on which to compute adjustments, doubt to vol
Imes of water now consumptivey used time ags
IN runoff, and other uncertain factors.
10. Sloan plan engineers leaned to the conserva-
i've side and kept their water allotments within
he recorded runoff for twelve year low flow pc
'iod, which showed 14,935000 acre feet of flow
annually at Yankton, the key point Pick plan en-
gineers based their estimates hypothetical cal
,uation which fixed average annual runoff past /
Yankton 23,050,000 acre feet annually. &
IL. committee of nine state engineers was t
alled in. Without basic and intensive study and r
argey deductions furnished by Army Engineers, n
his commission estimates average annual flow past a
Iankton as 1888, 600 feet a
II. u S. Geological Survey stream measure S
nents available for Yankton for the fifteen
ear period, 1931-1945. Stream gaging was main f
aimed at Sioux City, ninetytwo miles below Yank t
on, during 1929-30. When correction is made for a
npoundment at Ft. Peck, this seventeen years of P