Reclaiming the Swamp Lands 



293 



When the Reclamation Service came 

 into existence, in 1902, it found ready- 

 made a vast amount of essential prelim- 

 inary information in the topographic 

 maps of the United States Geological 

 Survey. A study of these maps showed 

 at once possible opportunities for creation 

 of reservoirs for water storage and the 

 relation of these and of perennial water 

 supplies to irrigate lands. The engineers 

 were thus enabled within a few months 

 to segregate a number of important 

 projects and put into the field large forces 

 upon the preparation of the detailed plans 

 for construction. To the existence of 

 these topographic maps is to be credited 

 much of the glory of the prompt achieve- 

 ment of the Reclamation Service. Now, 

 five years later, there is available an 

 even larger amount of the topographic 

 mapping so essential as preliminary in- 

 formation to the detailed study of drain- 

 age projects. Upon the existence of this 

 data and its intelligent use will depend 

 much of the success of such swamp recla- 

 mation as may be undertaken for the 

 whole country on broad and ' economic 

 lines. 



ONE-THIRD OF THli UNITED STATES H.\S 

 BEEN MAPPED IN GREAT _DET"AII, 



Topographic mapping has-been com- 

 pleted in either preliminary or final 

 form for nearly one million square miles, 

 or almost one-third of the area of the 

 United States. All of the mapping of 

 recent years has been executed in great 

 detail, in the course of which many thou- 

 sands of miles of spirit levels have been 

 run, from which permanent marks have 

 been left, and the resulting data furnishes 

 a vast amount of important engineering 

 information concerning the slopes and the 

 drainage of the surface of the land. 

 These maps show where the swamps 

 occur and their relation, both in distance 

 and position, to .natural drainage chan- 

 nels. Far more important than this, 

 however, their inspection shows, on close 

 scrutiny, all the facts of importance rela- 

 tive to the altitude of the swamps as re- 

 ferred to the surrounding hills and the 



drainage channels. It is evident, there- 

 fore, that a study of these maps shows 

 where the swamps of the country lie, 

 their extent, and furnishes in a prelim- 

 inary way essential information as to the 

 possibility of draining them. These 

 maps do not furnish the engineering data 

 needed in the location of an artificial 

 drainage system nor in the making of 

 estimates for construction, but they leave 

 to the engineer only the necessary field 

 inspection and more detailed location and 

 construction surveys essential before defi- 

 nite plans and estimates can be prepared. 

 Had such maps been in existence in the 

 earlier days of discussion of such drain- 

 age projects as the Kankakee marshes of 

 northern Indiana and of the tule lands 

 of the Sacramento Valley, many hun- 

 dreds of thousands of dollars wastefuUy 

 expended in ill-digested drainage schemes 

 might have been saved and useful works 

 constructed where nothing has yet been 

 accomplished. 



The most important feature of any 

 great engineering study covering a 

 widely extended territory, is the prelim- 

 inary examination which furnishes all the 

 data essential to a complete understand- 

 ing of every possible means of accom- 

 plishing the end sought. Hundreds of 

 thousands of dollars have been squan- 

 dered in railway locations because the en- 

 gineers, working in unknown territory, 

 have adopted the first feasible route, 

 whereas, had they possessed detailed 

 maps of the entire territory, better align- 

 ment and better grades might frequently 

 have been secured. So it is with any 

 large drainage project, and years may be 

 spent in developing difficult projects for 

 drainage through routes which appear 

 the only practicable ones available, 

 whereas a complete knowledge presented 

 in bird's-eye view, as on a topographic 

 map showing the relations of the swamp 

 lands to all of the surrounding drainage 

 channels, may frequently develop oppor- 

 tunities previously unsuspected. 



A few 3'ears ago it was the fashion for 

 orators expounding upon the advantages 

 of irrigation to point to its great antiq- 



