170 OUR FEDERAL LANDS 



derstood during years of experiment. Projects of 

 this size developed problems all their own. Begun 

 before its time, the System had to find itself. From 

 inception, through every stage of rapid groping to- 

 ward efficiency, management has been clean, open- 

 minded and able. Otherwise, the System would not 

 have escaped catastrophe. It is believed by many 

 that at last reclamation is on its way. 



Ill 



Glancing back again to beginnings, we perceive 

 a solid backing of nation-wide interest and support 

 for the new far western policy from the beginning. 

 There could have been no better evidence of it than 

 the speed with which $150,000,000, then regarded 

 a much greater sum than it is to-day, was applied to 

 the experiment. East as well as West, reclamation 

 became a public enthusiasm. Plans of the projects 

 and photographs of the works in course of building 

 had wide vogue in the press of the period. 



The four projects authorized in 1903 achieved 

 world fame. The Roosevelt Dam of the Salt River 

 project in Arizona came to typify American reclama- 

 tion, and remains one of the country's conspicuous 

 spectacles. The Milk River project at the entrance 

 of Glacier National Park, Montana, assumed inter- 

 national importance. The North Platte and New- 

 lands projects, in Nebraska and Nevada respectively, 

 brought realization for the first time to thousands 



