THE IBEIGATION AGE. 



IRRIGATION IN NEVADA. 



BY FRANK J. BRAMHALL. 



In the youthful days of even the present genera- 

 tion there was quite a large area of dots on the western 

 part of the map of the United States called "The Amer- 

 ican Desert." It may have disappeared from the maps 

 but it was nevertheless a desert ; and although Sam 

 Davis has written beautifully and poetically of "the 

 lure of the sage brush," the average tenderfoot insists 



carry out so stupendous an undertaking, and under 

 the appropriation of $100,000 by Congress in 1888 

 Major Powell started surveys of reservoir sites and 

 canal lines and the measurement of the water supply 

 of streams. Mr. William H. Hall was supervising en- 

 gineer of the investigations in Nevada and California, 

 and Mr. Lyman Bridges was in immediate charge of 

 the survey of the Truckee and Carson Eiver basins. 

 These preliminary surveys were carried on for some 

 years in spite of the lukewarm interest of Congress, 

 which soon discontinued the appropriation for the pur- 



Section of Map with Truckee-Carson Project Irrigable Areas Marked by Short Diagonal Lines. 



that it is an educated taste. A great part of this des- 

 ert area is the dried bed of the ancient lake the geolo- 

 gists call Lahontan, but all the elements of fertility 

 rest in those apparently barren sands. 



Nevada is essentially an arid region that is, the 

 rainfall, save in the mountains, is insufficient for cul- 

 tivated vegetation, yet the waters of the mountains are 

 sufficient for the irrigation of great areas of arable 

 land of the lower plains. 



Maj. John W. Powell, then director of the United 

 States Geological Survey, originated the idea of the 

 reclamation of arid lands through irrigation by the 

 general government, which power alone was able to 



pose, but in Nevada the work was energetically taken 

 up by Mr. Francis G. Newlands, now Senator from 

 that State. He had surveys made of some of the reser- 

 voir sites on both the Truckee and Carson Eivers, pur- 

 chased lands controlling several of them, and con- 

 structed a small dam at Donner Lake. In 1892 he 

 employed Mr. L. H. Taylor to survey a canal line from 

 the Truckee Eiver some twenty miles above Eeno to 

 supply water to some 70,000 acres of land to the north 

 and northeast. Mr. Taylor, who is now the supervis- 

 ing engineer of the Eeclamation Service in Nevada, 

 has therefore a most thorough and detailed acquaintance 

 with this entire subject, and this, combined with his 



