314 



THE IEEIGATION AGE. 



The officials have vacated the award of contract re- 

 cently made to D. H. Freeman & Co., of St. Cloud, Minn., 

 for the construction of Division 3, main canal, Lower Yellow- 

 stone irrigation project, North Dakota and Montana, and 

 has awarded the contract to Newman & Hoy, of St. Paul, 

 Minn. Division 3 consists of nine miles of canal, involving 

 1,088,800 cubic yards of excavation, and furnishing such ma- 

 terial and doing such work as may be necessary for the com- 

 pletion of the work. 



MADISON RIVER PROJECT, MONTANA. 



The Secretary of the Interior has authorized the engineers 

 of the Reclamation Service to survey and subdivide the lands 

 in the Fort Shaw abandoned military reservation, Montana. 

 These lands are needed in connection with the Sun River 

 irrigation project, which is designed to reclaim about 256,000 

 acres in the valley of Sun River. A large percentage of this 

 land is public domain and lies in a broad prairie extending 

 from Teton River on the north to Sun River on the south, 

 a distance of thirty miles, and from the Rocky Mountains 

 on the west to Missouri River on the east, a distance of 

 seventy miles. The sum of $500,000 has been allotted from 

 the reclamation fund for initiating this great work. 



The board of consulting engineers of the United States 

 Reclamation Service which recently convened at Billings, 

 Mont., to open proposals for the construction of the Corbett 

 dam, Shoshone project, report that five proposals were re- 

 ceived. The lowest bid was that of the Billings Construction 

 Company, Billings, Mont., $66,750. The Corbett diversion 

 dam is to be a low structure across the Shoshone River about 

 sixteen miles below Shoshone dam, and will be used to divert 

 the water into a tunnel through which it will be carried to 

 the Garland canal to irrigate about 80,000 acres of land 

 on the north side of the river. 



The board of consulting engineers of the United States 

 Reclamation Service, which recently met at Garden City, 

 Kas., to open bids for the construction of a combined office 

 and residence building for use in connection with the Garden 

 City irrigation project, reports that only two bids were re- 

 ceived, that of John D. Wells at $5,390 and P. S. Osgood. 

 $4,000. Both contractors are residents of Garden City. 



Oregon leads in the Government work of reclamation, 

 both in the amount of money contributed to the reclamation 

 fund through the disposal of public lands in that State, and 

 through the amount of money set aside for the construction 

 of works within its borders. It also leads in the difficulties 

 encountered in getting the work started. Although the 

 natural advantages of the State are great and appear at- 

 tractive on first sight, yet it has required more time and 

 energy to find feasible reclamation projects than elsewhere. 

 This is due to a number of conditions, such as legal com- 

 plications, the lack of transportation facilities, and the owner- 

 ship of land in large bodies by cattle companies and syndicates 

 who have acquired vast tracts under the federal land laws. 

 Immediately after the passage of the reclamation act on 

 June 17, 1902, investigations were begun throughout the State. 

 Public meetings were held by interested citizens and a large 

 number of schemes suggested. One after another these were 

 found to be impracticable from lack of dependable water sup- 

 ply, or were tied up in complications of vested rights to water, 

 or entangled with large land grants. Disappointment followed 

 most of the attempts, but finally out of the large number of 

 projects examined the Secretary of the Interior was able t<' 

 declare feasible the Klamath project in the southern part of 

 the State on the border of California and the Umatilla project 

 in the northeastern part of the State. For the Klamath 

 project the Secretary of the Interior set aside the sum of 

 $4,400,000, of which $2,000.000 are now available and are being 

 used, the remainder, $2,400,000, to be used in the future. 

 For the Umatilla project $1,000.000 have been set aside and 

 contracts are being let for the expenditure of that sum. 

 This is the first unit of the proposed John Day project taking 

 water from the river of that name and carrying it across the 

 Blue Mountains to the fertile slopes south of Columbia River 

 This great project will cost upwards of $10.000.000 and will 

 require many years for completion. The first part, however, 

 near Umatilla River, can be carried out within a relatively 

 short time. 



An investigation of the Madison River irrigation project, 

 Montana, was recently completed by the engineers of the 

 United States Reclamation Service, and a report made to the 

 Secretary of the Interior. Numerous surveys have been 

 made by various corporations and individuals since 1887 for 

 the purpose of locating a feasible irrigation system in this 

 vicinity, but no practicable project was found. Owing to the 

 fact that approximately 150,000 acres of land very advantage- 

 ously situated with respect to market, and with exceptionally 

 good railroad facilities, located near Helena are believed to be 

 reclaimable from Madison River, a careful reconnaissance was 

 made by the Reclamation Service in 1905. 



The main unit of the project outlined 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 Radersburg, and smaller tracts ag- 

 gregating about 52,000 acres bring the total reclaimable area 

 up to approximately 148,000 acres. 



The plan in brief is to construct a storage dam in 

 Madison River Canyon, 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 northerly direction 

 along the left bank of Madison River for about thirty miles, 

 crossing the Jefferson River by a siphon over three miles 

 long in the vicinity 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 a half miles the channels of McClellan 

 and Prickly Pear creeks will be used, the waters being di- 

 verted from Prickly 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, includ- 

 ing 16 miles of tunnels, 27J4 miles of concrete lined sections, 

 4 miles of siphon pressure pipe, 99 1 /2 miles of earth canal and 

 2 l / 2 miles of natural stream channel. There is one drop of 70 

 feet, and. a drop of 260 feet in the stream channel. 



A small independent part of the project contemplates 

 the irrigation of about 16,000 acres on the east bank of Mis- 

 souri River in the vicinity of Toston and Townsend, by a 

 canal diverting water from the Missouri River on its right 

 bank about three and one-half miles above Toston and run- 

 ning in a general northerly direction for about thirty miles. 



The unregulated discharge of the Madison River at the 

 proposed point of diversion would, in some years, be suf- 

 ficient to supply the canal throughout the irrigating season, 

 but in other years there would be a shortage in July, August 

 and September. On account of this shortage and for the 

 further reason that the entire low water flow of Madison 

 River is being used for power development at points lower 

 down on the Missouri River, it will be necessary to regulate 

 by storage practically the entire discharge of Madison River, 

 and this would be provided for by the dam in Madison 

 River Canyon, which would create a reservoir with a capacity 

 of 600,000 acre-feet. 



The total estimated cost of the project is $14,413,000. 

 On a basis of 147.800 acres this gives a cost per acre of 

 $97.50. Allowing $5 per acre for ten years maintenance and 

 operation brings the cost up to about $102,50 per acre. The 

 long canal line with its expensive river crossings, tunnels 

 and other structures necessitated by the topography of the 

 country, are responsible for the high cost of construction. 



FOR SALE 



Write 



160 acre water right on irrigation 

 project near Denver, Colorado. 



HENRY MEISSNER, LEIGHTON, IOWA. 



NO MORE BLIND HORSES For Spe 



cifiic Opthamalia, Moon Blindness, and other sore 

 eyes, BARRY CO., Iowa City, la., have a sure cure. 



