UNCLE SAM, AUCTIONEER 



How the Government will Assist in 

 the Development of a Desert Area 



A RATHER UNIQUE scheduled 

 ^^ event is to take place in south- 

 ern Idaho by the time this number of 

 Forestry and Irrigation reaches its 

 readers, when Uncle Sam will offer 

 for sale the lots contained in two town 

 sites situated in the heart of the Mini- 

 doka irrigation project. 



This project provides for the recla- 

 mation of about 130,000 acres lying 

 on both sides of Snake River. The 

 land was all public dcftiain and when 

 the engineers designed the system they 

 did not neglect the splendid oppor- 

 tunity for establishing an ideal farm- 

 ing community. Three town sites 

 were laid out in the center of the tract 

 on the proposed line of the Oregon 

 Short Line railway ; the towns were 

 platted with wide streets and boule- 

 vards, and parks and extensive areas 

 for public buildings were reserved. All 

 the agricultural lands were cut into 

 farms of 40 and 80 acres, so that the 

 instant the tract is brought under cul- 

 tivation it will become one of the most 

 densely populated agricultural com- 

 munities in the country. Its prosperity 

 is assured by the unfailing water sup- 

 ply which will be furnished by the big 

 Government canals and ditches, and 

 this prosperity will be reflected in the 

 future success and substantial growth 

 of the towns which Uncle Sam pro- 

 poses to establish there. 



Two years ago the Minidoka coun- 

 try was an uninhabited sage brush 

 plain. The railroad was miles away 

 and it seemed destined forever to serve 

 only as a haunt of the jack rabbit and 

 the skulking coyote. Far below the 

 surface the Snake River cut its way 

 through a canyon across the plain, 

 offering no opportunity for the pio- 



neer with his simple ditch to lead the 

 water out upon the thirsty soil. Only 

 skilled engineers backed by vast capi- 

 tal could tackle such a proposition as 

 this. Many men without the neces- 

 sary money had looked at it, but its 

 great cost had forced them to give it 

 up. With the passage of the Recla- 

 mation Act on June 17, 1902, one of 

 these engineers who had joined the 

 Government force rushed a field party 

 to this point and in a single season 

 prepared and presented a set of plans 

 for a comprehensive system of irriga- 

 tion. They were accepted and bids 

 were asked and contract awarded for 

 construction. 



To irrigate this broad expanse of 

 plain the Snake River must be lifted 

 from its bed, and a dam was laid 

 across the stream at Minidoka Rapids, 

 a great rock fill structure 50 feet in 

 height and 650 feet long on top, which 

 raised the water surface 47 feet at 

 flood level and backed it up for thirty- 

 five miles. The dam is near comple- 

 tion and will cost nearly half a mil- 

 lion dollars. When the immense gates 

 in the diversion channel are lifted the 

 water will pass into the high line 

 canals on both sides of the river and 

 be led from them through hundreds 

 of miles of laterals to every farm 

 in the valley. 



The initiation of this worfc was fol- 

 lowed by an influx of settlers from all 

 over the country, and soon every farm 

 division had been filed upon. While 

 the Government proceeded with the 

 construction of the dam and canal sys- 

 tem, the settlers were busily engaged 

 upon their own buildings. The com- 

 ing of large numbers of farmers cre- 

 ated a market and stores sprang up. 



