1GO 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



Story of the Oregon Fruit 

 Farms Project 



In 1908, D. M. Brogan "discovered" the Willow River 

 Valley. He is a Westerner haling from the State of Wash- 

 ington, where he owns fruit land in the Yakima and Wenat- 

 chee country. 



Haying seen what this land produced,, he was desirous 

 of getting a body of irrigated land which would be strictly 

 fruit land and had spent a great deal of time investigating 

 projects in Idaho, Washington and Oregon. He inspected the 

 Willow River Valley and decided that it was the best of all 

 the propositions that he had looked at. 



The Willow River comes down from the Burnt River 

 mountains where it has a water shed area of about 500 square 

 miles, and runs down through the center of the valley. 



Leonard Cole, now president of the United States Na- 

 tional Bank of Vale, Oregon, a town at the lower end of the 

 valley, had located his home ranch at the head of the valley 

 in 1868, and established his cattle and horse business there, 

 ranging his cattle in the surrounding hills and winter-feeding 

 on alfalfa which he raised along the Willow river. He had 

 prospered during these years and when Mr. Brogan came 

 to the valley, he owned some 12 different ranches which were 

 all improved and on which he raised alfalfa and grain for his 

 winter-feeding. He therefore, owned practically the entire 

 water of the river. 



In about 1900 the Government had established a stream 

 measurement station on his ranch at a bridge crossing the 

 Willow River and for the next six or seven years, daily stream 

 measurements were made showing that the Willow River 

 had a flood flow as high as 100,000 acre feet per year. 



The river flows through a long series of hills to the point 

 where it breaks out into the valley about one mile above his 

 ranch, and there are numerous natural reservoir sites along 

 this course making the impounding of water a simple matter. 



The Willow River Company purchased all of these old 

 cattle ranches from Mr. Cole with the entire direct flow of 

 the river and filed on three reservoir sites which have the 

 capacity of impounding 90,000 acre feet of water. Construe- 



induced four fruit raisers from Palisade to make a trip 

 with him and give him their expert opinion of the trees. 

 What they saw was so satisfactory that in February, 1909, 

 twenty-two of these fruit growers returned to the valley 

 and purchased 1,000 acres of this land and agreed to plant 

 it immediately on the assurance of Mr. Brogan that the 

 first reservoir, impounding about 7,000 acre feet of water, 

 would be constructed in time for the season's irrigation. 

 With this nucleus of. practical fruit men, the project was 

 launched under flying colors. Most of them sold their farm 

 ranches and moved into the valley, commenced the con- 

 struction of houses. Their money helped to increase de- 

 posits in the local banks over $100,000. 



The company on its part, has been very active. Reser- 

 voirs No. 1 and 2 are finished and the present Spring will 

 see 40,000 acre feet impounded. Reservoir No. 3 will also 

 be finished in time for the Spring flood flow. 



One of the largest bond houses in Chicago has pur- 

 chased securities to the extent of one million dollars for 

 use if needed. 



The Oregon Short Line has agreed to build a branch 

 line from the town of Vale through the center of this 



Home of A. Tschirgi in April, 1909. 



tion was begun early in 1909, on reservoir, No. 1 and later 

 in the same year on reservoirs No. 2 and 3. 



Around each of the home ranches was the regulation 

 farm orchard where apples, peaches, plums, apricots and 

 pears had been growing from twenty to thirty years. It was 

 the condition of these trees and the fruit raised, coupled with 

 the sworn statement from Mr. Cole and other old inhabitants 

 of the valley that there had never been a frost in their thirty 

 years of fruit raising sufficient to injure the trees, that was 

 the deciding factor in the selection of this valley as an ideal 

 fruit raising district. The trees were without a blemish, the 

 trunks being clean and the fruit without a sign of any fruit 

 pest, though there had never been a sprayer in the entire valley. 

 In order that he might make no mistake, Mr. Brogan, 

 in the Fall of 1'JOS when the fruit was still on the trees 



New Home of A. Tschirgi in August, 1909. 



valley to the new town of Brogan, which has already been 

 established. The grading for this road is completed and 

 is now awaiting for the steel and ties. 



A general commercial store has been built at Brogan, 

 a new hotel is half completed and will be ready for the 

 Spring business. This hotel will be strictly up-to-date 

 with steam heat, hot and cold water and mahogany furni- 

 ture. 



A bank has been organized with $50,000 capital paid 

 up and will be located in the new hotel building. 



The temporary houses that were built this Spring have 

 all been supplanted by bungalows and residences thus 

 showing the class of settlers that has come to the valley. 

 Oregon Fruit Farms. 



In 1909 a party of Chicago capitalists became inter- 

 ested in the Willow River Valley. They first visited the 

 district only as individual purchasers seeking good fruit 

 farms, but the possibilities of the valley appealed to them 

 so strongly that they arranged for the purchase of 8,000 

 acres of land and water from the Willow River Company 

 and have opened an office in Chicago for the retailing of 

 the land in small tracts. 



To intending purchasers this valley has many strong 

 points. 



First. Water supply is ample. There is no question 

 but that there is sufficient for many more acres than the 

 company contemplates irrigating. 



Second. The construction work is practically all com- 

 pleted. 



Third. The character of the settlers is high class. 

 Most of them are experienced fruit men from older dis- 

 tricts. This means that the valley will benefit from their 

 long experience in the fruit raising business. They under- 

 Continued on page 182.) 



