TUB CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 



gonians in recent years, irrigation has become an impor- 

 tant interest. 



The State Commission, in its report to the National 

 Irrigation Congress of 1894, made a careful estimate of 

 the water resources of eastern Oregon. It was found 

 that in the extreme southwestern part of the arid dis- 

 trict, bordering the Cascade mountains, half a million 

 acres could be watered by using supplies impounded in 

 natural lakes, the most important of which are Upper 

 and Lower Klamath, Summer, Albert, Warner, Goose, 

 and Silver lakes. In the southeastern part of the State 

 forty thousand acres are already commanded by sixteen 

 irrigation canals. It was estimated that the irrigable 

 area could be increased as follows : In the Snake River 

 Valley, two hundred thousand acres; in the Malhuer 

 River Valley, two hundred thousand acres ; in the Wil- 

 low Creek Valley, one hundred and fifty thousand acres ; 

 in Bully Creek Valley, fifty thousand acres ; and in nu- 

 merous other valleys, fifteen thousand acres. It would 

 be necessary, however, to make provision for the storage 

 of water to effect this result. 



The Umatilla river in northern Oregon is one of the 

 large tributaries of the Columbia. Here irrigation en- 

 terprise has been so active that at times more than the 

 total flow of the stream has been appropriated. As yet 

 most of the projected works have not been built, owing 

 to the difficulty of interesting capital during the hard 

 times. The region is fertile and picturesque, well sup- 

 plied with railroad outlets, and certain to be benefited in 

 time by improvements which will render the Columbia 

 river navigable to the sea. A large area can be brought 

 under irrigation, and the district seems likely to be the 



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