History of Dakota Territory, volume III, Part 63

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1146

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SOUTH DAKOTA: ITS HISTORY AND ITS PEOPLE

It may be truthfully said that practically all of the state east of the 100th meridian is arable and fertile prairie land suitable for agricultural pursuits, fairly well provided with living streams and with an elevation of about 1,500 feet above the sea. Lying between the eastern border of the state and the Missouri River are two pronounced divides running north and south between the Big Sioux and the James and between the James and the Missouri and its small eastern feeders. Across the eastern part on about the same latitude the elevations are: Brookings, 1,636 feet; Huron, 1,285 feet; Pierre, 1,441 feet. Further north the elevation at Highmore is 1,890 feet, and that at DeSmet is 1,726 feet. There are no large forests in this part of the state. In the valleys are numerous small groves of cottonwood, ash and box elder. The average annual temperature of the whole eastern part is 44.5. There is an annual aver- age difference of 5 degrees between the southern counties and the northern counties. In the summer temperatures as high as 100 degrees have been reached. The mercury has climbed to 114 in the summer months. It rose to 114 at Bowdle; to III at Aberdeen and Greenwood; to IIO at Academy, Alexan- dria and Kennebec. It went as low as 46 below zero at Aberdeen ; 43 at Huron ; 42 at Sioux Falls and Menno; 41 at Brookings and Kennebec; 40 at Clark and 39 at Bowdle. At Huron the wind blows an average of 11.6 miles an hour, and at Yankton 8.4. The mean relative humidity at 8 o'clock in the morning is-Huron, 82 per cent ; Yankton, 60 per cent. At Huron the prevailing direction of the wind is from the northeast and at Yankton from the northwest. Killing frosts occur as late as May and as early as September. The mean annual precipi- tation at a number of points is as follows: Bowdle, from 1892 to 1908, 19.83 inches; Highmore, from 1890 to 1908, 17.92 inches; Chamberlain, from 1897 to 1908, 18.05 inches; Greenwood, from 1894 to 1908, 24.13 inches; Yankton, from 1874 to 1908, 26.00 inches; Centerville, from 1897 to 1908, 27.05 inches ; Ipswich, from 1898 to 1908, 22.27 inches; Faulkton, from 1893 to 1908, 20.02 inches ; Mellette, from 1893 to 1908, 20.70 inches; Redfield, from 1898 to 1908, 20.34 inches; Huron, from 1882 to 1908, 21.04 inches; Mitchell, from 1892 to 1908, 24.05 inches ; DeSmet, from 1889 to 1908, 21.53 inches; Sisseton Agency, from 1869 to 1905, 22.71 inches; Watertown, from 1893 to 1908, 22.5 inches ; Gary and Clear Lake, from 1892 to 1908, 24.68 inches; Brookings, from 1889 to 1908, 20.66 inches; Flandreau, from 1890 to 1908, 25.00 inches; Wentworth, from 1892 to 1908, 23.24 inches.

The waste lands comprise the so-called Bad Lands, the mountain ridges, the gumbo hills and the marshes and overflowed regions east of the Missouri River, or more accurately in the northwestern part of the state. In this eastern part, during wet seasons, large tracts of extremely arable land are overflowed and rendered useless. A drainage system wherever such a state of affairs exists should be established. It was estimated that the lands thus needing drain- age aggregated about three hundred thousand acres, too large an area to permit to go to waste. Several of these low areas, after rainy seasons, remain filled and unusual for several years thereafter. A considerable portion is cultivated when dry enough, which it is occasionally. The spring floods in the valleys of the James, Vermillion and Big Sioux have demonstrated the necessity of drainage. In recent years such drainage systems, by the construction or commencement of large canals or ditches, designed to carry off the surplus waters at times of over-

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SOUTH DAKOTA: ITS HISTORY AND ITS PEOPLE

flow, are being built. As the land thus often flooded at unexpected times is the most arable in the state and as the state already has too much dry and unpro- ductive land, it would seem that the state should push the drainage measures to a successful finality. It is true that much has been done in this direction, but it is also true that thousands of additional acres need drainage and will not get it unless an effort is made by all interested.

The largest tract of the so-called Bad Lands is situated between the Cheyenne and the White rivers southwest of the Black Hills. They consist of a labyrinth of winding ravines and narrow ridges which in places widen into broad buttes capped with tables formed from harder strata, or surrounded with slender pin- nacles like the spires of a cathedral. In other places the harder beds remain like cornices and buttresses around the more prominent buttes. Everything shows that this whole region was once washed by the rush of waters for thousands of years, the softer strata being swept away and the harder left standing in all sorts of fortification-like remains or structures. Strata and fossils are left bare and revealed. Around the Bad Lands proper are more or less continuous high clay bluffs from which all the intricacies may be seen. These are not the only bad lands. They are found in considerable extent along the Missouri and Cheyenne rivers and appear as lead-colored creceous clays or gumbo hills. Or the bad lands may be found in patches often covering a whole township, where a cement-like hard-pan prevents successful cultivation. These tracts long ago should have been marked in order to prevent innocent purchasers from being swindled when buying the same.

The Black Hills are real mountains and are the result of volcanic action many thousands of years ago. Here may be seen large areas of steep and stony unproductive soil and numerous ledges of rocky formations. High on the hills in the level sections are splendid forests growing from a sandy or gravelly loam soil. The river deposits in the valleys are mainly sand, gravel, clay and organic matter mixed to form a soil of great fertility. West of the Missouri River, here and there, the buttes stand out as reminders of the small sections that were not washed away by the great interior lake that thousands of years ago covered the rest of the state, but did not remain long enough to finish the buttes. Bear Butte in Meade County, just outside of the Black Hills district, is the most con- spicuous formation of this kind in the state. Others are Thunder and Rattle- snake buttes in Ziebach County; Elk, Clay and Hump buttes in Carson County ; Wolf, Arrow Head and Bad Land buttes in Perkins County ; Cave Hill and Slim Buttes in Harding County ; Hay Stack, Castle Rock, Owl and Deer's Ear buttes, in Butte County ; Cedar, Grindstone, Medicine and Fort George buttes in Stan- ley County ; Red and White Clay Butte in Lyman County ; Turtle Butte in Tripp County ; Eagle's Nest Butte in Washabaugh County; Porcupine and Slim buttes in Harmon County ; and Sheep Mountain Butte in Pennington.

The question of adequate and available moisture has been computed from every angle. According to the weather bureau of the Government the state east of the Missouri has from I to 2 inches of rain during the winter, 6 to 7 inches during the spring, 8 to 9 inches during the summer and 3 to 4 inches during the fall. Thus not only is the supply sufficient for the crops on right soils, but it comes at the right time. The great problem, then, is to make it available on all the soils of the state. When there is an impervious subsoil the only suitable plan

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SOUTH DAKOTA: ITS HISTORY AND ITS PEOPLE

is to apply all the moisture on the top by irrigation when needed and to conserve the moisture with mulches. The elevations west of the Missouri range from about 1,500 feet above the sea near that river to about 3,200 feet at the eastern border of the Black Hills. The Hills rise up from 4,000 to 8,000 feet. Except in the Ilills the physical features are not such as to affect the climatic conditions, because there are neither large forests, large bodies of water, nor mountainous elevations elsewhere. In the Hills agriculture is limited to the valleys and the more gradual slopes and where irrigation can be employed. The rich valleys or bottoms are locally called "parks." The average annual temperature from all localities where records have been kept is about forty-five and six-tenths degrees. It is not as cold in the northern counties west of the Missouri as it is in the northern counties east of the Missouri.

The average annual precipitation of the eastern section is about 22.3 inches, of which about 83 per cent comes from March Ist to September 30th. It gradu- ally decreases from east to west and the southeastern part of the state receives the most. The rainstorms of summer in this section are often accompanied with hail and severe lightning. Occasionally tornadoes devastate strips of the coun- try. Droughts in the summers and blizzards in the winter are likely visitors. March generally gives the largest amount of snowfall. The average annual precipitation in all the region west of the 100th meridian from March Ist to September 30th is about 17.3 inches, or five inches less than for the region east of the 100th meridian. This meridian passes north and south through the state near Blunt, Hughes County-about a mile west of it. The greatest precipitation is in the central or more elevated portion of the Black Hills and outside seems to decrease from south to north. The heaviest rainfalls are in May, June and July, and the least in January and February, about eleven inches of snow count- ing for one inch of rain. In this region March usually gives the heaviest snow or rain fall. The mean forenoon relative humidity at Rapid City is 70 per cent, at Pierre is 75 per cent ; the afternoon humidity is from 15 to 20 per cent less. The average hourly wind velocity at Pierre is greater than at Rapid City-9.3 and 8.1 miles respectively. Over the eastern portion of the western half of the state southerly winds prevail from May to September inclusive and westerly winds prevail the rest of the year; but over the western portion of the western half westerly winds prevail.

West of the Missouri River conditions vary very much-lowlands and high- lands, dry and wet, arid and fertile, prairie and timber, farming and mining- but all are or can be made profitable. The rainfall is sufficient where conserva- tion methods are employed, but needs assistance if they are not. The irrigation methods quite generally inaugurated in the Black Hills aid the annual rainfall, so that generally all crops are good and sure. Killing frosts occur both early and late and sometimes cut the crops to the ground even in the summer months. Large tracts in the western part of the state are already benefited by irrigation - many in fact have been reclaimed from semi-arid conditions.

It may be stated as a fact that irrigation in this state is yet in its infancy, but enough has been done to show its possibilities. Neither can it be denied that a large part of Western South Dakota is semi-arid and needs irrigation. The mean average rainfall at Rapid Rity from 1888 to 1908 was 17.15 inches ; Ash- croft, from 1892 to 1908, was 14.26; Spearfish, from 1889 to 1908, was 22.20; Vol. III-29

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Pierre, from 1892 to 1908, was 16.5; Fort Meade, from 1879 to 1908, was 20.06; Leslie, Stanley County, from 1895 to 1908, was 14.07; Rosebud, Todd County, from 1892 to 1908, was 18.44; Hermosa, Custer County, from 1890 to 1908, was 19.04; Oelrichs, Fall River County, from 1890 to 1908, was 18.94; Cascade Springs, from 1897 to 1908, was 14.05; Little Eagle, from 1899 to 1908, was 16.48. It will be seen from these figures that the rainfall is too light for success- ful agriculture year after year. At Rapid City in 1893 only 9.61 inches fell; at Pierre in 1894 only 7.82 inches fell. As a large percentage of the water flows away and is lost, the importance of irrigation becomes apparent.

Every citizen will admit that all the state needs from, generally, the 99th to the 103d meridian, is more moisture, more rain, more water. If the people of the state could give satisfactory assurance that an abundance of rain-say forty inches annually-would fall over this area, what would be the result? The whole region would be filled with permanent settlers within three or four years. Hun- dreds of thousands of families in the East and in Europe would come as fast as the trains could bring them, but such rains do not come nor are they likely to come soon. Is there any substitute? Only irrigation. Every farm can be sup- plied, but farming must be more or less intensive-the acreage of each farm must be cut down or irrigation cannot be employed. If applied it will double the production on the same acreage. The surplus waters alone of the rivers and large creeks would supply all that is needed in any section beyond the annual rainfall. By storing this surplus in reservoirs and using it on restricted tracts when needed, the problem for the semi-arid belt would be solved. The popula- tion would triple within three to five years. All money spent would come back from Jupiter Pluvius. But the farmers are comparatively poor, are unable to unite on an irrigation project, fear their advisers and wish to avoid all possible chances of failure. So they can do nothing in concert, as nearly all irrigation projects should be conducted. One way out of the wilderness would be for the state to advance the money for the projects, beginning with the smallest, feeling its way step by step from one success to another, supplying all farms wanting the water in each district, charging a reasonable interest sum therefor. Good crops will follow irrigation properly conducted; irrigation will follow an abun- dant water supply; water will follow reservoirs, canals and ditches; reservoirs, canals and ditches will follow state enterprise, pride, money and decency. What, then, will set the latter in action? The newspaper, the leading officials and orators, the great educational institutions ånd in short all the more intelligent citizens, if they will all unite on a course of action and will then ask for the voters to ratify the plans at the polls or the Legislature to pass suitable laws. A general demand from this source will succeed sooner or later in effecting this result. Or in other words, a campaign of education will swing the whole state into line for this advance.

While it is true that crops can be produced successfuly in the state west of the Missouri River under dry farming methods in years of average rainfall, it is likewise true that safer and larger yields can be secured by irrigation wherever such a step is practicable. This fact has led to the establishment of the various irrigation projects around Spearfish, Belle Fourche and on Rapid and Battle creeks and Fall and Cheyenne rivers. Irrigation means all the water needed for the best development of the crops. But as nature supplies rainfall the actual

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SOUTH DAKOTA: ITS HISTORY AND ITS PEOPLE

amount of water needed for any crop is the difference between what is utilized from the clouds and what will mature the crop. This amount will vary with the different years and must be supplied from one or more of these principal sources : (1) Perennial streams; (2) flood and storm waters ; (3) wells. Nearly all the streams arising in the Black Hills are perennial. On the plains the Little Missouri, Grand, Moreau, Cheyenne, White, Little White and Missouri rivers are perennial. Several may cease to flow in very dry seasons. In addition to these streams there are numerous drainage channels and smaller streams, which will afford water for reservoirs and dams during flood periods.

Owing to the fact that the Missouri River and its larger tributaries have very narrow valleys, the installation of an expensive and elaborate irrigation system from those stream would not be warranted for such purposes alone. However, the fall of the Missouri River in its passage across both North and South Dakota is so great that by impounding its waters well to the northward immense tracts of higher lands farther down stream could be reached by canals, ditches, etc. It is only a question of time when this will be done, not only on the Missouri but on the Cheyenne, White and other state streams. With an excellent soil as a whole, but with an insufficient supply of water west of the Missouri, South Dakota some time will awake to the fact that the only additional inducement needed to thickly populate the semi-arid portion of the state in a very short time is a reliable supply of moisture to insure the maturity of all crops and supplement what nature furnishes. This course should be commenced at once. Whether the Missouri River should be included in the project or not, it is certain that smaller streams should thus be set to work at once. On Grand River near Seim and at other places on that river and on the Moreau and their tributaries irrigation projects should be put in operation. Another tract is on the Little Missouri-several tracts aggregating thousands of acres. No one but the state itself is to blame for the ill repute the western part has received from persons not knowing the conditions and possibilities that are offered there.

Where dry farming is practiced alkali will not hurt the crops under ordinary circumstances, but where irrigation is used methods must be adopted to prevent the alkali low in the soil from coming to the surface to be there accumulated to the injury of the crops. Systematic and intelligent drainage is already solving this problem in the other states. The alkali is not brought to the surface as it would be under an irrigation system, but is put in solution and removed by under-drainage and seepage through the lower soil. Where alkali exists in South Dakota this system would have to go hand in hand with irrigation.

The size of the valleys west of the Missouri varies with the size of the streams except where the erosion has been too violent or sudden. In the latter case there are swift, narrow streams, compressed valleys and precipitous bluffs cut up with deep ravines. Much of the abruptness in this portion of the state is due to the difference in the resistant qualities of the original surface formations, the softer soon disappearing and the harder remaining often in fantastic forms, as in the Bad Lands. The buttes are part of the formations that resisted the erosive agencies. The Bad Lands show extreme erosive effects. They are said to have been so named because they were hard to travel through. The Big Bad Lands are in the northern and northwestern part of Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, in the southwestern part of Stanley County and in the southeastern part of Penning-

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ton County. The greater portion of all this area is from two thousand to three thousand feet above sea level. In the plains proper the drainage is ample and during the hot months all streams except the larger ones become dry-all except the principal ones in the Black Hills.

The annual precipitation in practically all sections of the tract west of the Missouri is often sufficient to insure the successful production of crops. Some- times when the distribution of the downpour is not even this is not the case. Usually, when there is a crop failure due to drought the distribution has been irregular or out of the ordinary. The precipitation varies very much with both the month and the year. The precipitation at Rapid City in 1893 was only 9.61 inches, while in 1905 it was 27.06 inches. At Spearfish it was 11.89 inches in 1898 and 29.41 inches in 1903. The greatest amount of water falls in the Black Hills and in the southeastern part of the western area, and the least falls in the far northwest and along the lower Cheyenne. The average precipitation from October to March inclusive-six months-is 4.22 inches, while the average from April to September inclusive is 14.05 inches-nearly three and one-half times as much. Thus generally the rain falls when it is most needed by the crops. If there could be added to the monthly rainfall of July and August a few more inches each, there would be a vast difference in the appearance of the crops on Septem- ber Ist. That extra supply will come only through irrigation. It should be borne in mind, also, that the rainfall of the six months from April to September inclusive is increased by the melting snows which soak into the ground in the early springs.

"There is a more or less general impression that the climate in this section is changing and that the plowing up of the country is causing a permanent increase in the rainfall. The records at Rapid City show that the rainfall for the last decade is considerably higher than for the preceding, and although the contrast is greater there than at any other point in this area, it is probably respon- sible, in some measure at least, for the idea that the rainfall is on the increase. Careful records here, as well as in other sections, extending over long periods, lead to the conclusion that no permanent change is taking place and that drier years may be expected in the future as in the past. A fuller appreciation of the necessity for conserving the moisture and a better understanding of the methods for accomplishing this, together with the selection of crops better suited to the soils and semi-arid conditions, will doubtless do much to lessen the injury sus- tained in years of insufficient moisture."-Bureau of Soils, 1911.

"In Eastern South Dakota climate and physical characteristics are similar to those existing in states to the east and bountiful crops of corn and small grain are grown without the artificial application of water. But it is different west of the Missouri River. In that portion of the state, while the rainfall is suffi- ciently well distributed in normal years to produce crops, irrigation is necessary in other years for the best production. There are in Western South Dakota several million acres of unoccupied land suitable for agriculture and comprising virgin soil as rich as any area of like extent in the world. Under present condi- tions this land is not cultivated, but lies unimproved. The problem for consid- eration comprises the prospective benefits that may be expected when the irrigable portions of these lands and other irrigable areas are brought under a high state of cultivation by means of irrigation. It may be truthfully said that the practice

UNITED STATES FISH HATCHERY, SPEARFISH

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SOUTH DAKOTA: ITS HISTORY AND ITS PEOPLE

of irrigation in South Dakota is still in the formative period."-Report of State Engineer.

The state water code declares that "all the waters within the limits of the state from all sources of water supply belong to the public and, except as to navigable waters, are subject to appropriation for beneficial use, which shall be the basis, the measure and the limit of the right to the use of water; that all water used for irrigation purposes shall be appurtenant to specified lands owned by the person claiming the right to use the water ; and that priority in time shall give the better right." It also provides that "any person, association or com- pany who may have or hold possession, right or title to any agricultural lands within the limits of this state shall be entitled to the usual enjoyment of the waters of the streams or creeks in said state, and for the purposes of directing flood waters for irrigation or for stock purposes any person, association or com- pany may build or construct dams across any dry draw or water course within the state and such person, association or company shall have the right of way through and over any tract or piece of land for the purpose of conveying said water by ditch or flume."

Of course the Missouri River furnishes an enormous supply of water suit- able for irrigation. The alkali (or other injurious salts contained therein) is so small in amount as to have no effect on the excellent results obtained by using the water for irrigation purposes. The great obstacle is the enormous cost of having to convey the water through canals and ditches far enough to override the hills where it is needed most.

The largest rivers west of the Missouri are Grand, Owl, Cheyenne, Bad and White. All of them except the Bad flow throughout the year. They have similar characteristics-passing in low, narrow valleys on zig-zag courses generally east- ward to the Missouri. In the valleys and along the smaller tributaries are groves of cedar, elm, box elder, ash and cottonwood. From source to mouth some of them have a fall of about two thousand feet. The length of the Cheyenne within the state is about five hundred miles and of the Grand, Owl and White about four hundred miles. Thus all have a swift and eroding current. The two branches of the Cheyenne, including the Belle Fourche of the northern branch, almost completely enclose the Black Hills in this state. Other streams west of the Missouri are the South Fork of White, Keya Paha in southern part, Little Missouri in northwestern part, and Whetstone, Bull, Medicine, Cedar, Willow, Stone and Oak creeks, which empty into the Missouri. The streams of the Black Hills are Fall and Red Water rivers and Whitewood, Bear Butte, Alkali, Elk, Box Elder, Rapid, Spring, Paxton, Spearfish, Beaver, Cascade, Battle and French creeks, all, or nearly all, having a constant flow with unrivaled facilities for irri- gation and water power. The Belle Fourche River has been known on a day in June to discharge 5,444 cubic feet of water per second, and on a day in May, 4,360, at Belle Fourche. The Cheyenne River at Edgemont has been known to discharge 10,960 cubic feet per second on a day in July and 9,175 cubic feet on a day in June. Grand River at Seim has discharged as high as 2,910 cubic feet per second on a day in June. The Little Missouri has discharged 609 cubic feet per second on a day in June. Owl River has discharged 1,122 cubic feet in August at Bixby under same conditions. Red Water River at Belle Fourche has discharged per second on a day in June 7,000 cubic feet.

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History of Dakota Territory, volume III, Part 63

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920 Publication date: 1915 Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company Number of Pages: 1146

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1146