THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



233 



BLACK CANYON A STORY OF HOPE DEFERRED 



By F. G. BURROUGHS, Caldwell, Idaho 



James B. Newport, president 

 of the Black Canyon Irrigation 

 District. 



Dr. F. M. Cole, President of 

 the Caldwell (Ida.) Commercial 

 Club. 



UNDER the name The Black 

 Canyon Irrigation District it 

 is probable that this project is but 

 little known outside of Idaho. It 

 is a legally organized District 

 under Idaho laws, formed for the 

 purpose of furnishing the ma- 

 chinery whereby irrigation of the 

 lands within its boundaries may 

 be undertaken under either Gov- 

 ernment or private auspices. 



\Yhen the great Payette- 

 Boise Project was undertaken by 

 the Reclamation ^Service, the lands 

 under the Black Canyon were in- 

 cluded in the project and, in fact, 

 it was generally expected that the 

 construction works would be 

 begun on the North Side, now 

 called the Black Canyon, in which 

 case the settlers on the other portion of the project, 

 who are now enjoying the blessing of an abundance 

 of water, would be in the position occupied today by 

 the entrymen in the Black Canyon. The lands in the 

 project, as originally laid out by the Government, 

 embraced about 295,000 acres, divided 95,000 on the 

 North Side and 200,000 on the South Side. 



In 1903 the Government withdrew all the lands 

 then embraced within the Payette-Boise Project. It 

 was planned by the Reclamation engineers that the 

 South Side section, now practically completed, 

 should be watered from the Boise River and that 

 the North Side, now the Black Canyon, should take 

 from the waters of the Payette River. 



Contrary to general expectation, the work was 

 begun on the South Side, where the settlers have 

 been receiving water for the past four years, and 

 which, with the exception of the great Arrow Rock 

 Dam, is completed, water being furnished under a 

 rental system pending the completion of the dam 

 and accurate knowledge on the part of the Goyern- 



M. H. Gibbons, Secretary of 

 the Caldwell (Ida.) Commercial 

 Club. 



Hon. J. M. Thompson. leader 

 of Elack Canyon campaign. 



I 



ment as to the actual cost of the 

 great undertaking. 



Naturally, as soon as the worka 

 were started, and it became 

 known that construction work 

 was being pushed by the Reclam- 

 ation Service, settlers began to 

 flock in. Quickly lands all over 

 the whole project were entered, 

 both on the north and south sec- 

 tions of the Project. These set- 

 tlers came here because the Gov- 

 ernment had promised to furnish 

 them with water. The lands on 

 the whole project are very fertile 

 and quickly all the best pieces 

 were appropriated and the little 

 two-room shacks of the home- 

 steader began to dot the land- 

 scape. 



Soon the big Deer Flat Reservoir was com- 

 pleted. Two big embankments cutting off the two 

 outlets of the great natural basin were built and 

 the water allowed to flow upon the land within the 

 depression, making an immense reservoir with 

 twenty-seven and three-quarters miles of shore 

 line, from which the laterals are supplied today. 



Meanwhile, the homesteaders on the North Side 

 had been patiently waiting, fully believing that as 

 soon as the works in hand were completed the Re- 

 clamation Service would turn its attention to those 

 lands to be watered from the Payette River. 



All of these people had a little money when 

 they came, few have any now, but their sturdy 

 American citizenship was evidenced by the cour- 

 age and persistency with which they hung on to 

 their homesteads and waited on Uncle Sam's pleas- 

 ure. These home builders came here between the 

 years 1903 and 1908. and many of them have en- 

 dured hardships and privations that it would re- 

 quire the pen of a Dickens to adequately describe. 



