THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



107 



NORTHWEST NOTES. 



SPOKANE, WASH., January 29. Private irrigation 

 plans are on foot in various parts of eastern and central 

 Washington to reclaim more than a million acres of 

 land, probably the most pretentious of these enterprises 

 being in Quincy county, west of Spokane, where David 

 E. McGinnis, an irrigation expert, has submitted a 

 report showing that by an expenditure of $8,000,000 

 for a plant and line and $4,000,000 for distributing 

 canals, an area of 540,000 acres, worth $54,000,000 

 when irrigated, can be reclaimed. The plan proposed 



Irrigation Canal near Garden City, Kas. 



is to carry water from the Wenatchee river at Turn- 

 water canyon and by means of a 96-inch pipe siphon 

 it across the Columbia river from Wenatchee and land 

 it on the plateaus a short distance east of the town of 

 Trinidad. From there it would be taken by ditches and 

 laterals throughout the Quincy country. 



SPOKANE, WASH., January 29. Construction work 

 on the Tieton unit of the Yakima irrigation project to 

 cost $1,400.000, will begin the middle of next month 

 and it is expected to have the mammoth canal assume 

 shape before the end of the year. Hundreds of men 

 are already at work and Joseph Jacobs, engineer in 

 charge, is one of the busiest men in Washington. Ex- 

 cavating will be done by the government by day's work 

 and probably 500 men will be in the field as soon as 

 the winter breaks. The first point of attack will be on 



Vineyard in the Arkansas Valley. 



the great tunnel across the divide, nearly a mile long. 

 Theodore Weisenberger, of North Yakima, has a con- 

 tract to build twelve miles of concrete work of the 

 main canal, and will handle about $250,000 worth of 

 labor, as the government will furnish the steel and 

 cement. Other contracts will be awarded in February. 

 The successful completion of the gigantic Yakima 

 project will give Mr. Jacobs a standing as one of the 



leading irrigation engineers of the United States, and 

 that means of the world. There is every indication 

 that he is going to prove equal to the task. If he does 

 not, at any rate, it will not be because he lacks per- 

 sistence and industry. A. P. Davis, assistant engineer 

 of the reclamation service, visited the Sunnyside dam 

 recently and expressed himself much pleased" with the 

 manner in which the work is progressing. 



SPOKANE, WASH., January 29. Work has been 

 started by the Trent Power and Irrigation Company on 

 the power plant to be built at Trent, eight miles east 

 of Spokane. Construction of the dam will be done by 

 Frank MacKean, of the Hydro-Electric Company, of 

 Chicago, the contract for the dam having been let for 

 $10,000. It will be built of concrete and masonry, 16 

 feet high and 552 feet in length. The race will be 50 

 feet wide, carrying 8 feet of water. The dam is to cross 

 the Spokane river north of Trent and run to one of the 

 islands in the middle of the channel, making the dam 

 in two parts. The power house will be equipped to de- 

 velop 1,500 horsepower with a full capacity of 2,500 

 horsepower ultimately. Water for irrigation will be 

 taken from a number of wells 20 feet deep. Sixty 

 thousand dollars will be expended at present in building 

 the dam, power house and reservoir. Ultimately $110,- 

 000 will be spent in developing all the available power. 

 There will be a 16-foot head of water above the tur- 

 bine in the power house, which is to be 4,000 feet down 

 the river. 



SPOKANE, WASH., January 31. Filing has been 

 made by Howard Amon, of ^ennewick, Wash., on 

 11,000 cubic feet of water, to be taken from the Snake 

 river at a point at the head of Five Mile rapids. The 

 project includes the damming of the Snake river, which, 

 in turn, will necessitate the construction of locks to 

 admit of navigation. Twenty thousand horsepower will 

 be developed, which can be increased as the demand for 

 power increases. The power will be used principally 

 for pumping water to irrigate large tracts of land in 

 the vicinity of Richland, Pasco and Kennewick and 

 the surrounding country. The cost of the dam, locks 

 and power plants will be approximately $500,000. 



SPOKANE, WASH., January 31. Ferdinand Mar- 

 tize, of Quincy, Wash., is organizing the Moses Lake 

 Irrigation Company, with a paid-up capital of $250,- 

 000, which will be expended in a plant west of Spokane. 

 It is purposed to build a dam at the foot of Moses lake 

 and to raise the level of the water in the lake and to 

 supply water for a large district. It is a natural irri- 

 gation district and a big body of desert land lies along 

 the valley between the hills and the Chicago, Milwaukee 

 & St. Paul's route. All of this can be irrigated with 

 but little trouble. It is perfectly level, and the digging 

 of the ditches will be a matter of small expense. 



SPOKANE, WASH., January 31. Winter irrigation 

 of the Hudson Bay district below Freewater and Mil- 

 ton, southwest of Spokane, is now in progress, irriga- 

 tion from the big ditch and its laterals covering an 

 area of 20,000 acres of fruit and alfalfa lands. All 

 the water from the Walla Walla and Tumalum rivers 

 below the Peacock mills at Milton is available for winter 

 irrigation, which has proved to be a successful system 

 in this district. The water is allowed to flow over the 

 land until it is thoroughly saturated for several feet 

 below the surface, the deeper the saturation the better, 

 and much of the alfalfa land is literally soaked during 

 the winter months. 



