138 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



BELLE FOURCHE IRRIGATION PROJECT. 



In the allotment of $34,270,000 which the federal 

 government will spend for irrigation in the western 

 states tinder the reclamation act, South Dakota will 

 receive $2,200,000, and a tract of 85,000 acres will be 

 irrigated. This tract is now a gumbo flat north of the 

 Black Hills and near Belle Fourche. 



The possibilities appeared obvious, immense and 

 certain to Raymond F. Walter, an engineer of the 

 reclamation service who investigated the field, and is in 

 charge. 



The main canal, six miles long, is ready for water 

 to be turned into it. , It has a width of seventy-five feet 

 at the top, of sixty feet at the water line, and will carry 

 ten feet of water. At this maximum rate it would 

 fill the reservoir in three months, but as the water sup- 

 ply is from the mountain streams and, therefore, ir- 

 regular, not all of the freshet supply can be caught 

 and it is estimated that it will require nine months to 

 fill the reservoir to its maximum capacity. 



This contract was let too late in October for 

 the main retaining dam which will hold in a natural 

 reservoir an amount of water equaling 40,000 acre feet 



Headworks Gate Belle Fourche Project. 



The Pierre clay or "gumbo" now covered with 

 cacti, sage brush and alkali grass is very rich, its great 

 need being moisture at the proper season. This the 

 government engineers propose to furnish in abundance 

 from an immense reservoir, through hundreds of miles 

 of canals and laterals. 



Of the total acreage the major part is now in gov- 

 ernment land, there being practically 50,000 acres of 

 unentered land in the Belle Fourche tract. The portion 

 which is entered is in the Belle Fourche valley and is 

 excedingly fertile and already has a value of $30.00 

 to $40.00 an acre. This valley is about thirty miles 



per year. This contract was awarded to Messrs. Orman 

 & Crook, Pueblo, Colo., whose bid was $879,164 for the 

 main dam. This firm also bid on the canals and col- 

 laterals included in schedules 1, 2 and 3, their total bid 

 being $1,003,299. This contract was let too late in 

 October for the beginning of the big dam, but oper- 

 ations are under way for the work to be begun in the 

 spring. 



The head-works dam for the diversion of the waters 

 of Crow, Red Water and Spearfish Creeks into the main 

 canal, is one and a half miles northeast of Belle Fourche. 

 The main canal, following the lowland, leads in a 



View of Main Canal Belle Fourche Project. 



north of the Black Hills; between it and the hills is 

 Bear Butte, a volcanic mountain 750 feet high. Some 

 writers have distorted the facts to say that a volcano 

 would be irrigated. 



The headworks dam is practically completed. It is 

 concrete and steel, the seven flood gates being of steel 

 set between concrete pillars of masonry which the gov- 

 ernment engineers say are practically imperishable. Ac- 

 companying illustrations show the form of construction 

 of these head-gates. 



northeasterly direction to the reservoir which will in- 

 clude a big basin and the valley of Owl Creek. One big 

 dam crosses Owl Creek seven miles north of the post- 

 office of Snoma and sixteen miles north of the railroad 

 station of St. Onge, and will retain waters in the natural 

 reservoir. There is a difference in level of over one 

 hundred feet from the bottom of Owl Creek to the 

 height of the adjacent hills on either side. The dam 

 will be of concrete with stone riprapping to prevent 

 erosion and will be a mile in length. 



