THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



267 



the wash of rain and weather by sowing it to grass which 

 will be carefully watered and looked after by a man em- 

 ployed for that purpose alone. The number of cubic 

 yards of earth in the dam is 1,600,000. The total cost 

 will be $1,000,000. 



The reservoir formed by this dam will have a length 

 of over twelve miles and the width will average over 

 three miles. Water will be backed by the dam up Owl 

 Creek to the north and westwardly up the valley of Dry 

 Creek. It will be the largest body of water in South 

 Dakota as well as one of the largest in the West, and 

 will prove a great attraction to pleasure seekers, fisher- 

 men, hunters and boating enthusiasts. 



Water is drawn from the reservoir into two canals 

 through concrete conduits or arches. These conduits are 

 of peculiar construction, and we had hoped to be able 

 to clearly illustrate 

 them but were unfor- 

 tunate in the matter 

 of securing clear pho- 

 tographs. 



One canal known 

 as the North Canal, 

 extends north and 

 northwest from the 

 reservoir and will ir- 

 rigate some 65,000 

 acres of land. It is 

 forty-five miles long, 

 twenty - eight feet 

 wide on the bottom 

 and carries water 

 seven feet deep. The 

 other, known as the 

 South Canal, runs to 

 the south and south- 

 east from the reser- 

 voir, is eighteen feet 

 wide on the bottom, 

 carries water five feet 

 deep and is also forty- 

 five miles long. This 

 canal will irrigate 

 35,000 acres of land. 

 The water in this sec- 

 ond canal is carried 

 south of the Belle 

 Fpurche River and 

 across the bottom 

 lands of that river in 

 a siphon six feet in diameter. 



No. 1. 

 No. 8. 



No. 3. 

 No. 4. 



No. 5. 

 No. 6. 



The siphon is very 



strongly constructed and it is safe to say is one. of the 

 best that has ever been built in an irrigated country. 

 It is 3,800 feet long and the water will go through the 

 pipe and under the river with a velocity of ten feet per 

 second. The pipe is built of steel and concrete, the 

 steel frame being first built and then surrounded by an 

 eight inch shell of concrete. Three miles below the 

 siphon it was necess'ary to build a tunnel through a 

 shale hill some twelve hundred feet long. This work 

 is nearly completed and is being lined with concrete. 

 The concrete is laid in the tunnel and filled in around 

 the slope and top by means of a collapsible steel frame 

 which is something new in work of this character. 



The contractors on the work were particularly for- 

 tunate in finding good water by drilling artesian wells. 

 One well was sunk 1,407 feet, which flows about sixty 



gallons per minute, with a temperature of ninety-four 

 degrees. Four wells are sunk at different points on the 

 work. 



In order that settlers may be properly instructed 

 in the art of irrigation and may be taught what is neces- 

 sary in the way of cultivation and the laying out of land 

 to insure good crops, the Department of the Interior is 

 co-operating with the Department of Agriculture and a 

 quarter section of land has been selected by the latter 

 department as an experimental farm. About one half 

 of this land will be irrigated and the other half will be 

 above ditch so that experiments may be made along the 

 line of both irrigation and dry farming. This will be 

 of inestimable value to the settlers. A considerable por- 

 tion of the irrigable land has already been put under 

 cultivation and a good sized tract of the land will be 



used for experiments 

 in forestry. A wide 

 variety of trees will 

 be cultivated on the 

 land set apart for 

 this purpose with a 

 view to demonstrat- 

 ing what trees are 

 best suited for this 

 particular locality. 

 Both the agricultural 

 experiment station 

 and the forestry di- 

 vision will prove of 

 great assistance to all 

 of the settlers and is 

 a worthy move on the 

 part of both the In- 

 terior and Agricul- 

 tural Departments. 



Belle Fourche, 

 the town in which is 

 located the head of- 

 fice of the engineer, 

 is situated at the 

 junction of the Belle 

 Fourche and Red- 

 water Rivers, ten 

 miles east of the Wy- 

 oming line and thirty 

 miles from Dead- 

 wood and Lead, the 

 home of the greatest 

 gold mine in this 

 country. The town has a population of 1,800 people, 

 and contains a number of substantial stone and brick 

 business blocks. It draws trade from a territory reach- 

 ing out a hundred miles to the north and northwest. 

 All lines of business are fairly well represented and there 

 are fine openings for business men as a. result of the 

 rapid development of the surrounding country. For a 

 number of years Belle Fourche has been the greatest 

 cattle shipping point in the world, as many as nineteen 

 trains of livestock having been shipped from that point 

 in one day. 



Thousands of horses and sheep are also shipped out 

 every year and judging from the appearance of the 

 horses in Belle Fourche and throughout the entire val- 

 ley, one would judge that there must have been some 

 splendid blood imported into that section years ago. 



As indicating the extent of the sheep indiistry in 



A bunch of cattle passing through Vale, S. D., en route to summer range. 

 Government freight train passing through Vale, S. D., en route to Standing 



Rock Agency. 



Street scene in Vale, S. D., showing bank. 

 First residence erected in Vale, S. D. 

 Bridge over Belle Fourche River, near Vale. 

 Bear Butte, near the Ft. Mead Military Reserve 

 Belle Fourche Project. 



and adjacent to Belle 



