336 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



NORTHWESTERN ENGINEERING CORPORATION. 



Civil Engineers, Headed by Walter H. Graves, Form Com- 

 pany for Special Practice. 



We are pleased to note that Mr. Walter H. Graves, the 

 well-known civil engineer, and who has been prominently iden- 

 tified with the irrigation development of 

 the West for the past thirty years, is 

 now at the head of a thriving and suc- 

 cessful engineering and construction 

 company, known as the Northwestern 

 Engineering Corporation, located at 

 Portland, Ore., Seattle and Spokane, 

 Wash. 



It seems from the circular letter is- 

 sued by this institution that it is an as- 

 sociation of civil engineers who are en- 

 gaged in the various lines of special en- 

 MR. WALTER H. GRAVES, . 



Mem. Am. Soc. C. E. gmeermg practice, such as irrigation, 

 hydraulic power development, electric, 



reinforced concrete, municipal railroads, bridges and build- 

 ings, etc., and who have pooled their professional specialties 

 in one business organization in the belief that they can secure 

 better results, not only for themselves, but for their clients as 

 well, "by co-operative and co-ordinated effort" and at the 

 same time have the advantage of "mutual assistance and con- 

 sultation." 



This idea is rather unique in the line of professional 

 practice but, as "combination" is the keynote of modern busi- 

 ness methods, we do not see why it can not be made to work 

 out successfully in professional lines as it has in the industrial 

 field. 



Mr. Graves, the president of this corporation, is widely 

 and favorably known as one of the leading irrigation engineers 

 of this country. He has been actively engaged in the con- 

 struction of irrigation works throughout the various sections 

 of the western country for many years and he states that 

 during that time he has located and constructed more than 

 four thousand miles of irrigation canals and that there are 

 over one hundred thousand people living on and supported 

 by the lands reclaimed by the irrigation works that he has con- 

 structed, a claim which he makes with much pardonable 

 pride. 



Mr. Graves was a member of the famous Powell Expedi- 

 tion in the early exploration and survey of the Colorado 

 river and its canyons and was subsequently employed by the 

 government in connection with the topographical work of the 

 Geological Survey and in collecting information relative to the 

 irrigable lands and available water supplies throughout the 

 West. He has collected much of the data for the Government 

 Report on "The Arid Lands of the United States" issued 

 in 1878. 



During these investigations he became very much inter- 

 ested in the subject of reclaiming these arid lands and foresaw 

 that irrigation was destined to become a business of paramount 

 importance in the West. With the idea of properly qualifying 

 himself for engaging in it he made Irrigation Engineering 

 a special study and in the Spring of 1879 resigned his position 

 at Washington to locate at Denver, Colo., placing on his office 

 door the sign, "Irrigation Engineer." Mr. Graves states now 

 that he feels confident that this was the first sign of this kind 

 ever displayed in this country and he now has the same sign 

 in his office at Portland. 



The period between 1879 and 1892 was one of great 

 activity in the settlement and development of the West and 

 especially throughout the intermountain states. It was during 

 this period that most of the great irrigation systems that have 

 contributed so largely to the prosperity and wealth of these 

 states were projected and successfully carried out. 



Among the pioneers in the field of irrigation Mr. Graves 

 was one of the most active and progressive in instituting and 

 promoting projects of greater magnitude than had before been 

 considered practicable. In working out and constructing these 

 great systems under the conditions that then prevailed he 

 had to meet and solve many problems incident to a com- 

 paratively new field of engineering practice and thus set a 

 pace and established precedents that are now generally accepted 

 as standard among irrigators. 



In 1879, in association with Ex-Governor John L. Routt 

 and Senator John S. Stanger, editor and proprietor of the 

 Colorado Farmer, he planned and constructed the Empire 

 Canal, the first of the great canal systems of the San Luis 

 Valley in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico. 

 Later in association with Mr. T. C. Henry, he instituted and 

 constructed the Citizens and Rio Grande canal systems. 

 The combined San Luis Valley canal systems supply with water 

 more than 500,000 acres of land, cost approximately $2,500,000, 

 and furnish homes for at least 30,000 people. 



Mr. Graves also designed and constructed the Uncom- 

 pahere Canal, in the western part of Colorado, which was re- 

 cently purchased by the Government in connection with the 

 "Gunnison Tunnel Project," and the canals about Grand 

 Junction which has made the Grand River valley famous as 

 one of the "garden spots" of the world. He also constructed 

 some of the large canal systems in the northern and eastern 

 parts of the state and in the surrounding states, Wyoming, 

 Montana, Idaho, Utah, and also in New Mexico and Arizona. 

 He estimates the aggregate cost of the various irrigation works 

 which he has designed and of which he has had supervision 

 to be approximately $11,560,000. 



The Leadville mining excitement in 1878 and 1879 brought 

 a great many people to Colorado and this was really the begin- 

 ning of the tide of immigration that followed and spread over 

 the entire inter-mountain region and was the occasion of the 

 great reclamation development that took place during the 

 succeeding years. The desirable and available areas for settle- 

 ment were soon appropriated and the hungry land-seekers be- 

 gan to look longingly towards the great Indian Reservations, 

 insisting that these lands should be either alloted and utilized 

 by the Indians or thrown open to settlement. In response to 

 these demands the Government through the Interior Depart- 

 ment instituted a policy of alloting the reservation lands to 

 the Indians in severally and purchasing the unallotted portions 

 and releasing them for settlement. In carrying out this policy 

 it became necessary to provide irrigation for those lands 

 allotted to Indians, where agriculture was impracticable with- 

 out it, and the department undertook to construct the neces- 

 sary irrigation works in furtherance of this policy. 



The. construction of these irrigation works was generally 

 entrusted to some one entirely unfamiliar with the requirements 

 of the business or some engineer from the East who had 

 more political influence than experience and regarded his 

 position as a sinecure. In consequence after several years of 

 failure and the useless expenditure of a large sum of money 

 the policy was about to be abandoned when the matter was 

 brought to the especial attention of the Hon. John W. Noble, 



(Continued on page 351.) 



