THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



of the Interior. A little north of the town and running 

 east the land is similarly withdrawn for a distance of 

 four miles. 



There is not a sentence in any of the acts of Con- 

 gress, so far as we are able to discover, authorizing the 

 Secretary of the Interior to withdraw one acre for the 

 city of Los Angeles or withhold one acre from entry. 



The Act of June 30, 1906, states (Section 5) that 

 all lands over which the rights of way mentioned in 

 this Act shall pass, "shall be disposed of, subject to 

 such easements." (Section 6, Public Document 395.) 



There are in the neighborhood of 25,000 acres with- 

 drawn arbitrary to the law from all forms of entry and 

 for what purpose ? 



It is the general impression of the people in Inde- 

 pendence and all other citizens throughout the valley 

 that this withdrawal is made with the sole purpose of 

 benefiting individuals who h(ve been instrumental in 

 pushing the Los . Angeles water project to the fore. 

 Another purpose in the premises is of preventing the 

 settlement of the lands so that they may gain control 

 of the water. 



The same conditions prevail in the vicinity of 

 Lone Pine, a town near the stream, south of Indepen- 

 dence. The object, apparently, is to gain control, not 

 only of the Owens Eiver water shed, but also of the 

 Mono Lake region, giving them the future exploitation 

 of a water shed of upwards of 2,000,000 acres, with a 

 possible 100,000 inches of water. 



If the Reclamation Service can be kept out of this 

 field all of this water and all of the power to be de- 

 veloped, running into hundreds of thousands of horse- 

 power, will be subject to their exploitation for all time. 



Our readers may, from reading the foregoing, have 

 developed the inquiry, "Who are they?" 



Personal interests and large land holders in the 

 Los Angeles territory creep out in this investigation. 

 It is said that a leading citizen of that city has secured 

 a total of 16,000 acres of land which may be watered 

 from this source, thereby increasing the value from the 

 purchase price of from $20 to $25 per acre to at least 

 $100 per acre. It is alleged that five individuals inter- 

 ested in the Colombia Trust Company of Los Angeles 

 own or control 65.000 acres of land in San Fernando 

 valley, which, it is proposed, to irrigate from this 

 source. The question naturally arises, "Why should 

 water be taken from Owens Valley and the citizens 

 thereof, who have within the past sixty years made a 

 garden of a sage brush plain, to enrich a section 260 

 miles away and allow enormous profits to be made by 

 a few shrewd individuals in that city ?" 



To one who would study the condition carefully 

 there appears to be a tendency on the part of the gov- 

 ernment officials to favor Los Angeles in this connec- 

 tion. It is possible that the Forestry Bureau head and 

 the head of the Reclamation Service are not aware of 

 the fact that the Owens Valley peonle have fairly 

 good proof of the intent and conduct of the men who 

 are attempting to take over this water for use on lands 

 far removed from its source, and it is difficult to be- 

 lieve ' that the higher government officials will permit 

 a move of this kind when all of the facts are laid be- 

 fore them. 



We have secured a large amount of data concern- 

 ing the connection of the Forestry Service as well as 

 the Reclamation Service with the Owens Valley terri- 



tory and this will be exploited from time to time in the 

 columns of THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



There are letters in our possession which would in- 

 dicate that there has been a grievous wrong done the 

 inhabitants of this delightful valley by government 

 officials in Washington and elsewhere. 



The man who had full charge of the reclamation 

 work in the valley has since resigned his position and 

 gone over to the Los Angeles people at a salary, we are 

 informed, of $10,000 per year. This, in itself, looks 

 rather strange to even a casual observer. Later on a 

 history of the connection of this official and his associ- 

 ation with reclamation work in the valley will be fully 

 exploited in these columns. 



There is much also to be said about the taking over 

 of the Rickey land in Long Valley and at certain 

 points along the Owens River in the valley of that name 

 which will make interesting reading. All of these facts 

 will be laid before the proper officials from time to 

 time with the hope that the citizens of Inyo county may 

 not be injured by combinations against which they have 

 not heretofore been able to combat on equal grounds. 



GOODING, IDAHO. 



The Central City of an Irrigated Empire, where the De- 

 sert Has Been Made to Blossom as the Rose. 



BY EDWARD T. BARBER. 



On the 14th of November, 1907, the townsite of 

 Gooding was opened to the public. Previous to that 

 time it had been but a passing switch and a watering 

 station of the great Oregon Short Line Railway. Sur- 

 rounding it there had been a few ranches cleared of 

 sage brush and irrigated from the waters of the two 

 Wood rivers, which flow near the town. These ranches 

 were the small spots of the desert which could be easily 

 irrigated by the men of small means who used them to 

 raise hay for their flocks and herds. But the great 

 irrigation companies, with their millions of dollars, 

 came at last and began irrigation works on a scale so 



A view down Main street, Gooding, Idaho. The tmilding at the 

 farther end on the left side is the home of the Idaho Leader, a new 

 newspaper with a $10,000 print shop to back it up. 



great that the cost can only be counted in millions, and 

 Gooding was fortunately located at the point where 

 these great irrigation enterprises came together and met 

 the railway. This made Gooding a natural location for 

 a city and its backers began to let the world know its 

 advantages. The result is a city of twelve months that 

 might well make places of twenty years feel proud to 

 accomplish. 



