Home-making by the Government 



263 



gation cannot be measured in dollars 

 and cents. The desert made habitable 

 offers the boon of health to him who 

 erects his dwelling upon it. You cannot 

 fix the possibilities of this land of silence 

 and sunshine. We know that the influ- 

 ence of its far-flung horizons and its true 

 perspective are potential in character- 

 molding and building. Instead of the 

 dead level of mediocrity^ which prevails 

 in modern city life, the desert offers the 

 uplift of unmeasured distances, the per- 

 petual sunshine, and the individual home, 

 with the broader freedom of action which 

 comes with life in the open. There is a 

 constant inspiration to industry, a stim- 

 ulation to endeavor, in the superabundant 

 life which springs from the bosom of the 

 desert when water is applied. The trans- 

 formation which follows irrigation- is so 

 remarkable that we are prone to believe 

 Aladdin and his lamp have really ap- 

 peared. 



MINIDOKA PROJECT, IDAHO 



Three years ago last July I camped for 

 the night on the banks of the Snake 

 River, in southern Idaho. Save for our 

 campfire there was no sign of human 

 habitation within 30 miles, only a vast 

 sage-brush plain, rimmed on every side 

 by the horizon. It was a night to remem- 

 ber. Over us spread a star-gemmed can- 

 opy ; around us the embers of a sage- 

 brush fire shed their glow. In the near 

 distance the doleful wailing of the skulk- 

 ing coyote sent a chilly feeling up and 

 down the spine. 



A weather-tanned engineer in faded 

 khaki sitting beside me drew rough plans 

 in the sand, and I listened, interested, but 

 doubting, while he pictured the future of 

 this dusty plain. That engineer's plans 

 found favor in Washington, and in two 

 months actual work of construction be- 

 gan. An army of men came upon the 

 field and straightway took that river and 

 blocked it with a wonderful dam ; then 

 they led it into 130 miles of great canals 

 and 190 miles of ditches, and spread it 

 over 85,000 acres of land. 



Attracted by the signs of industry, set- 

 tlers poured in and every 40 or 80 acres 



of that vast area was taken up. Houses 

 began to dot the plain and a railroad 100 

 miles long, a branch of the Oregon Short 

 Line, was built through the center 

 of the tract. Three new towns sprang 

 up as if by magic. On the site of our 

 camp a school-house stands which opened 

 last year with 74 pupils. Today 1,400 

 families are living on farms and a thou- 

 sand people are living in towns where a 

 trifle over three years ago the eye met 

 nothing but dust and desolation. 



The Minidoka Project furnishes in- 

 dubitable evidence that a better invest- 

 ment was never made by a government 

 since the world began than national irri- 

 gation. President Roosevelt said, "No 

 part of this nation can be benefited with- 

 out a reflex benefit to the other part." In 

 this one project we find the proof of this 

 statement, for the 1,400 families who are 

 at work in that desert valley in Idaho 

 today are furnishing a market for end- 

 less quantities of manufactured articles, 

 the bulk of which are Eastern made. 



PAYETTE-BOISE PROJECT, IDAHO 



The Payette-Boise Project will reclaim 

 372,000 acres of land in the fertile val- 

 leys of the Payette, Boise, and Snake 

 rivers, in southwestern Idaho, which are 

 tributary to the Oregon Short Line, the 

 Boise, Nampa and Owyhee, and the 

 Idaho Northern railroads. The lands are 

 in Ada, Canyon, and Owyhee counties, 

 and are generally smooth, with gentle 

 slopes. Construction work is well under 

 way and many settlers have already taken 

 up their homesteads. 



The valleys are the best populated in 

 the state. The citizens came largely from 

 the middle West and are prosperous and 

 progressive. With superior market and 

 transportation facilities, with soil and 

 climate adapted to diversified and inten- 

 sive farming, this section is destined to 

 become one of the most densely populated 

 agricultural regions in the Northwest. 



UNCOMPAHGRE PROJECT, COLORADO 



In southwestern Colorado the most 

 spectacular project of the government is 

 nearing completion. In this region two 



