194 



The National Geographic Magazine 



ROAD-MAKING ACROSS NEWLY RECLAIMED TRACT OE SWAMP LAND IN SACRAMENTO 



VALLEY 



State of Mississippi. It is probable that 

 construction work in this area will be un- 

 dertaken by the formation of a drainage 

 district, the fund necessary for this pur- 

 pose to be raised by assessment of the 

 land improved. 



IMPORTANT PROJECT IN MINNESOTA 



In northern Minnesota a very interest- 

 ing problem is presented. Here the 

 United States owns about 2,500,000 acres 

 of land which the Chippewa Indians have 

 ceded to the government, to be held in 

 trust and disposed of for their own bene- 

 fit. Without some improvement of the 

 lands, however, there is little likelihood 

 -of the Indians realizing much of any- 

 thing from them, since they constitute a 

 vast swamp, with only here and there 

 small patches of arable land. The set- 

 tlers on these isolated tracts are as com- 

 pletely marooned during long periods as 

 though located upon islets in the ocean. 



So Congress has authorized the survey 

 of these lands with a view to determining 

 the feasibility of their reclamation by 

 drainage, and the Geological Survey has 

 completed the major portion of the work 

 and has even drawn detailed plans for the 

 reclamation, by draining, of one portion 

 of the swamp, known as the Mud Lake 

 district. An amendment to the Indian ap- 

 propriation bill has been proposed by 

 Representative Steenerson of Minnesota 

 allotting $1,000,000 for the drainage of 

 this district, to be expended under the 

 direction of the Secretary of the Interior. 

 Mr Garfield also directs attention to the 

 very considerable drainage work that is 

 being done by the Reclamation Service in 

 connection with its irrigation problems in 

 the West. In one instance, in the Kla- 

 math, Oregon-California, project, some 

 50,000 acres of swamp land will be re- 

 claimed by drainage, and under an exten- 

 sion of this great project there will be at 



