THE MADISON PROJECT 



Plan to Reclaim Large Area 

 of Montana Arid Land 



A N investigation of the Madison 

 ** River irrigation project, Mont., 

 was recently completed by the engi- 

 neers of the U. S. Reclamation Ser- 

 vice, and a report made to the Secre- 

 tary of the Interior. Numerous sur- 

 veys have been made by various cor- 

 porations and individuals since 1887 

 for the purpose of locating a feasible 

 irrigation system in this vicinity, but 

 no practicable project was found. Ow- 

 ing to the fact that approximately 

 150,000 acres of land very advanta- 

 geously situated with respect to mar- 

 ket, and with exceptionally good rail- 

 road facilities, located near Helena are 

 believed to be reclaimable from Madi- 

 .son River, a careful reconnaissance 

 was made by the Reclamation Service 

 in 1905. 



The main unit of the project out- 

 lined by the engineers consists of about 

 43,000 acres of land in and adjacent to 

 Prickly Pear Valley near Helena ; a 

 :second tract of about 53,000 acres lies 

 in Crow Creek Valley on the west side 

 of the Missouri River near Raders- 

 burg, and smaller tracts aggregating 

 about 52,000 acres bring the total re- 

 claimable area up to approximately 

 148,000 acres. 



The plan in brief is to construct a 

 storage dam in Madison River Can- 

 yon, the stored water to be discharged 

 into Madison River as required, and at 

 a point about seven miles below the 

 dam, near the mouth of Cottonwood 

 Gulch, diverted by means of a weir 

 into a canal on the west bank of the 

 river. This canal will run in a north- 

 erly direction along the left bank of 

 Madison River for about thirty miles, 

 crossing the Jefferson River by a si- 

 phon over three miles long in the vi- 

 cinity of Willow Creek, and thence 

 parallel but at some distance from the 

 -west bank of Missouri River to a point 



on McClellan Creek, into which its 

 waters discharge. For about two and 

 one-half miles the channels of Mc- 

 Clellan and Prickly Pear creeks will be 

 used, the waters being diverted from 

 Pricklv Pear Creek near East Helena, 

 the canal then encircling Prickly Pear 

 Valley, discharging into a coulee at its 

 lower end. 



The entire length of the canal would 

 be 150 miles, including sixteen miles 

 of tunnels, twenty-seven and three- 

 quarer miles of concrete lined sections, 

 four miles of siphon pressure pipe, 

 99^2 miles of earth canal and two and 

 one-half miles of natural stream chan- 

 nel. There is one drop of seventy 

 feet, and a drop of 160 feet in the 

 stream channel. 



A small independent part of the pro- 

 ject contemplates the irrigation of 

 about 16,000 acres on the east bank of 

 Missouri River in the vicinity of Tos- 

 ton and Townsend, by a canal divert- 

 ing water from the Missouri River on 

 its right bank about three and one- 

 half miles above Toston and running 

 in a general northerly direction for 

 about thirty miles. There are 5,140 

 acres of cultvated land below the pro- 

 jected canal line location irrigated 

 from Dry, Greyson, Gurnet, and Duck 

 Creeks and Confederate Gulch. If 

 satisfactory arrangements could be 

 made with the owners of these water 

 rights their lands could be watered 

 from the canal and the water from the 

 creeks used on lands above the canal, 

 and this area, 5,140 acres, now water- 

 ed, has been included with the 16,800 

 acres of irrigable land. There are 

 probably 3,000 acres north of Con- 

 federate Gulch that could be irrigated 

 by extending this canal to Avalanche 

 Gulch, but as this would involve many 

 additional miles of canal it has not 

 been considered. 



