296 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



THE GOVERNMENT PROJECT IN UTAH. 



E. W. HAIIT. 



With the completion of the San Pedro railroad to 

 the west in sight, the great Moffat line to the east, and 

 the extensive local improvements by the Oregon Short 

 Line under way, which bring into view the probable 

 acquisition of a new grand union depot in the near 

 future, Salt Lake City is forging rapidly to the front. 

 True to the earliest policy of the Utah'ns, they have 

 not suffered the irrigation problem to lag at this time. 

 Indeed, one of the grandest irrigation projects ever un- 

 dertaken in the West is not only afoot, but so far ad- 

 vanced that it is hoped that the work of construction 

 will be able to proceed at no distant date. This im- 

 mense system of water supply is designed to embrace 

 the possibilities of Utah Lake and Strawberry Valley 

 as reservoirs, swelled by the surplus waters of the Du- 

 chesne River, and to the north Bear Lake and the 

 Bear and Blackfoot Rivers. This plan for unifying 

 the available supply has been carefully worked out in 

 detail, and is said to demonstrate 'the perfect feasibility 

 of furnishing permanent and abundant water to Cache, 

 Salt Lake and Utah Valleys in northern Utah, and to 

 a portion of southern Idaho. When local agricultural 

 requirements have been met by the disposal of this 

 unfailing body of water, the growing demands of Salt 

 Lake City will be satisfied by the diversion of the cold 

 mountain streams which have hitherto found their way 

 to the outlying farms. 



The Utah irrigation programme has repeatedly 

 changed form and grown into mammoth proportions 

 since the State Commission took up the work of pre- 

 paring its scheme for submission to the Government. 

 There are still many points to be settled and much 

 remains indefinite, but the work of survey and meas- 

 urement and the organization of water users is proceed- 

 ing rapidly, the project is already conceded to be prac- 

 ticable, and no doubt is expressed that the success of 

 the undertaking is assured. The original plan com- 

 prised only the formation of the Utah Lake reservoir, 

 the preliminary work upon which was done last sum- 

 mer, but in February State Engineer A. F. Doremus. 

 submitted to the Government the ambitious scheme now 

 in preparation, whereby the original plan is supple- 

 mented by a general system for conserving the flood 

 waters of the rivers of the three valleys above men- 

 tioned, annexing the Strawberry. Valley reservoir, and 

 bringing in Bear Lake and its tributaries and reservoirs 

 to conserve the winter and flood waters of the Blackfoot 

 in Idaho and their transmission southward, altogether 

 designed to afford an abundance of water at all seasons 

 to Cache, Salt Lake and Utah Valleys, and bringing to 

 the highest state of cultivation 1,000,000 acres of land. 



Only about one-third of the available area of the 

 three valleys is at present imperfectly irrigated. It is 

 estimated that 1.000,000 acres can be richly cultivated 

 under the new system, and that the average increase in 

 the value of land will be at least $30.00 an acre, or $30.- 

 000,000. The present density of population in this 

 region is one person to each 1% acres of irrigated land, 

 and 1,000.000 acres under cultivation will easily sup- 

 port 1,000,000 people. 



The plan first projected by the State Commission- 

 ers contemplated no more than the improvement of 

 Utah Lake as a reservoir, involving only some method 

 of curtailing the loss by evaporation from the surface 



of the lake, especially the eastern and southern arms, 

 which at present exist merely as extensive and unwhole- 

 some swamps. That the measures designed for this 

 purpose are important is readily understood when it is 

 known that of the 431.000 acre feet flowing into the 

 lake each year, 398,000 acre feet have been lost annu- 

 ally by evaporation. In order to reduce the area of 

 the lake the plan recommended by Prof. G. L. Swend- 

 sen is to cut down the channel of the Jordan River 

 and extend it out into the lake, thus drawing the water 

 down much below its present level. This will neces- 

 sitate pumping to the high line canals, but would result 

 in an enormous saving of water. The other plan under 

 consideration is to run drainage ditches through the 

 centers of the low water and swamp lands comprising 

 the eastern and southern arms of the lake. By this 

 method, it is also pointed out, that hundreds of thou- 

 sands of acres of the richest land in the valley could 

 be reclaimed. A still further extension of soil and 

 further recession of the surface water could be accom- 

 plished by putting pumping dredges to work near these 

 shori's. and filling in thousands of additional acres 



The plan now adopted proposes to augment the 

 supply afforded by Utah Lake by bringing water from 

 the east of the mountains. Strawberry Valley is in 

 the Uinta Indian reservation and lies just east of the 

 crest of the Wasatch Mountains at an -elevation of 

 7,500 feet above sea level. It has an area of 7,000 

 acres and 'forms a natural reservoir, requiring only the 

 building of a dyke fijjty or one hundred feet high at 

 one end to serve the purpose. It is proposed that this 

 reservoir shall be supplied by a diversion channel thirty 

 to fifty miles long, intercepting the head waters of the 

 nearest tributaries of the Duchesne River. To deliver 

 this water into the valley west of the range means run- 

 ning a water tunnel three and one-half miles through 

 the solid wall of the mountain crest, probably the most 

 difficult engineering undertaking involved in the entire 

 work. The water thus brought through the mountain 

 wall will be carried down through the channel of rhe 

 Spanish Fork River to about the 4.800 foot contour. 

 and from thence a canal will branch off southwest 

 toward the town of Goshen and a second main chan- 

 nel will run northerly along about the 4,800 foot con- 

 tour to connect with a main channel from the north, 

 thus distributing water to all the high lands east of the 

 valley. The Weber. Ogdcn and Provo Rivers will be 

 dammed, like many others, all together constituting a 

 general design to store and save the flood waters 

 throughout the entire watershed, with branches and 

 laterals penetrating every loca-lity. Whether any of 

 the water reaches Utah Lake through the Spanish Fork 

 or not is immaterial, nqr will it alter conditions there 

 even if all its tributaries are cut off and spread over 

 the surface of the land before reaching it, for the seep- 

 age finding its way into Utah Lake from the constantly 

 watered high lands will more than compensate for its 

 loss in other directions. 



An objection to the idea of building expensive 

 works, including the three-mile tunnel through the 

 mountains, in order to deliver the water from Straw- 

 berry Valley down into the Spanish Fork River, as 

 designed, instead of using the water in Strawberry 

 Vallev itself, is well answered by reference to the fact 

 that in the last named valley, whose altitude is 7,500 

 feet, nothing can be grown except hay and grasses", 

 while the land intended to be supplied thereby can be 



