History of the Yakima Valley, Washington; comprising Yakima, Kittitas, and Benton Counties, Vol. I, Part 41

Author: Lyman, William Denison, 1852-1920
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: [Chicago] S.J. Clarke
Number of Pages: 1134

USA > Washington > Benton County > History of the Yakima Valley, Washington; comprising Yakima, Kittitas, and Benton Counties, Vol. I > Part 41
USA > Washington > Kittitas County > History of the Yakima Valley, Washington; comprising Yakima, Kittitas, and Benton Counties, Vol. I > Part 41
USA > Washington > Yakima County > History of the Yakima Valley, Washington; comprising Yakima, Kittitas, and Benton Counties, Vol. I > Part 41

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HISTORY OF YAKIMA VALLEY

the hard times of the nineties than almost any other part of the country. Specu- lation had not gone to such wild extremes as in southern California, or on Puget Sound, or at Spokane. Moreover, central and southeast Washington had very tangible resources, actual yearly production of food stuffs, cattle, wool, and other necessary and salable products to fall back on. Hence the Yakima Valley emerged from the depression in condition to profit by the return of better times in 1898 and thence onward. The most disastrous result of the hard times was the failure of Ben Snipes & Company. Mr. Snipes was the foremost stockman of the entire Valley. He was possessed of great energy and business ability, and though he had suffered severe losses of cattle in the hard winters of 1861 and 1880 he had quickly got on his feet again. As returns had come in from his stock business he had branched out in other lines, among them the banking busi- ness at Ellensburgh and Roslyn. A series of special misfortunes had befallen these banks and on June 9, 1893, both banks were compelled to close their doors. Mr. William Abrams, junior member of the firm, made a statement of the causes of the failure. There was a destructive fire at Ellensburgh in 1889, a dreadful explosion in the Roslyn coal mines in May, 1892, a robbery of the Snipes Bank at Roslyn in September, and Mr. Abrams believed that there was some secret undermining influence working against the company. Besides these local causes the failure of banks in large financial centers precipitated a run on the Snipes Banks which they were unable to meet. The first receiver, I. N. Powers, reported on March 20, 1894, the assets of the Snipes company, with those of ,Mr. Snipes, at $354,805.43 and the liabilities at $280,054.89. The sec- ond receiver, P. P. Gray, reported on March 29, 1900, that it was impossible to realize on the assets anything like the estimated value. Finally it came to pass that property valued at $140,815.07 was sold for $546.41. This ruinous deprecia- tion caused a showing of assets on March 1, 1900, of only $42,369.93, while liabilities were $234,062.72. The Snipes failure precipitated others. The First National Bank of Ellensburgh closed on July 27, 1893, but was able to resume within three months. Various other calamities and depressions made the year 1894 one long to be remembered. That was the year of the Pullman strike which paralyzed railway traffic in considerable part of the United States. In that same year came the "big flood" in the Columbia and tributaries, Yakima included, the greatest ever known, when steamboats ran up Front street in Portland. Other steamers made landings at the railway station at Wallula and Hunt's Junction. Miles of railway were under water and a considerable mile- age had to be rebuilt. In the Fall of 1893 torrential rains had largely ruined the wheat crop in eastern Washington, and in 1894 the price of wheat at Walla Walla went down to twenty-five cents a bushel. That was also the year of "Coxey's Army." Of some of these disasters, and others, we shall speak at more length in another chapter. We enumerate them here to note their connec- tion with the railway situation and events which followed in its train.

NEW RAILWAY LINES.

For a number of years the Northern Pacific had undisputed possession of the Yakima and Kittitas fields. The completion of the Stampede Tunnel in

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1890 and the building of branch lines into various productive regions caused a steady gain in business, and in spite of the catastrophes of the decade of the nineties, there was a steady increase in business. The branch lines to the Cowiche and Naches and Sunnyside greatly increased the productions of the area. So inviting a field as the rapidly developing counties of Yakima and Kittitas, as they were in the period from 1898 to 1908 and onward, could not fail to attract the attention of other great railway managers. The Union Pacific system under the energetic management of E. H. Harriman was pushing in all direc- tions, and it was the logical result of the development of that system that it cast longing eyes upon the swiftly accumulating freights of the Yakima Valley. Yet more important was a direct line to the Sound across the mountains. It was obvious to all far seeing transportation men that Puget Sound would be one of the great centers of world commerce, and that command of routes to that center would be of tremendous moment to every transcontinental line. A mysterious building movement began under the nominal control of Robert Strahorn of Spokane, with the name of North Coast Railroad. This was one of the background studies in railway lines which for a time baffled the prying curiosity of the keenest interviewers. Mr. Strahorn was a veritable Sphinx, and some attributed his construction to the Northwestern, some to the Milwau- kee, some to the Union Pacific. Whatever the source of supply it was evident that he had adequate financial backing. A direct line from Spokane to Ayer Junction on Snake River, crossing the river by one of the highest bridges in the world (268 feet above the water), to the Columbia River just below the mouth of the Snake was completed in 1910. The Columbia was bridged and the road completed to Yakima on March 24, 1911. It became disclosed that this North Coast Line was backed by the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company, which on December 24, 1911, became the Oregon-Washington Rail- way and Navigation Company. The line from Kennewick to Yakima, crossing the Yakima River near Kiona and continuing on the north and east side of the river nearly to Union Gap, has become a great factor in the growth of that magnificent region, of which Benton City, North Prosser, Grandview, Sunny- side, Granger and Zillah, are the chief centers. At this writing Yakima is still the terminus of this branch of the O .- W. R. R. & N. systems, but without question it will push on to a terminal on the Sound, and in the belief of many will put a line through the Simcoe and Klickitat regions, probably by way of Mount Adams to a Columbia River connection, thus tapping an undeveloped country of vast potential resources.

Yet another event of major importance in the railway world was the com- pletion of the Milwaukee Railroad system to Puget Sound. This road was built directly across the wheat producing section of eastern Washington to Beverly on the Columbia and thence over the high plateau westward to the Kittitas Valley. The first trains ran into Ellensburg in 1909. Thus the Yakima Valley has connections with all parts of the world by three of the great trans- continental railway lines.

One of the incidents connected with the construction of the O .- W. R. R. & N. system into Yakima was a great struggle over the passage way through

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Union Gap. This pretty nearly resulted in a pitched battle, and some night work and Sunday work, and finally an appeal to the courts. Each road was trying to make the other as much trouble as possible, and presumably in the end, as usual, the public-the long suffering and patient public-paid the bills in some form.

THE INTERURBAN RAILWAYS.

Aside from the great railway systems, there is an important interurban system, connecting Yakima with the outlying producing centers. This system, of which the corporate name is the Yakima Valley Transportation Company, has had an interesting history. Its inauguration was largely due to one of the most valuable of the builders of this region, George S. Rankin. Mr. Rankin has been connected with a large number of the most important enterprises of Yakima. Coming first to this place in 1889, going back to his home state of New York, and then coming again to Yakima in 1892, he assisted in launching irrigation enterprises, town sites, mercantile establishments, banking business, and other lines of great moment to the growing communities centering at Yakima. None of his great undertakings, however, was more productive than the local electric railway system. It was started in 1907. The first organiza- tion was known as the Yakima Inter Valley Traction Company, with H. B. Scudder as president. In 1908, there was a reorganization and the name of Yakima Valley Transportation Company was taken. A. J. Splawn became president, with Mr. Rankin as vice-president and manager. A local fund of $200,000 was raised for construction purposes. Six miles were built, three miles east and three miles west through the city. Judge Edward Whitson and Joseph McNaughton were associated with Mr. Rankin and Mr. Splawn in this great enterprise. The difficulty of financing so large an undertaking in the depression beginning in 1907 was such that the company disposed of their holdings to the North Coast Railroad Company in 1909. This meant of course the passing of the local electric line into the ownership of the Union Pacific R. R. Company. Extensions have been made till at the present date the Yakima Valley Transportation Company has forty-four miles of track. It is divided into a number of lines, city and interurban, as follows :

Fairview line.

2.9 miles.

Maple Street line.

2.5 miles.

Cascade Mill line

1.9 miles.

Fourth Street line 2.6 miles. Nob Hill line. 3.0 miles. 1

Fruitvale line.

1 1

3.1 miles.

Wiley City line

9.1 miles.

Selah line 7.1 miles.

Harwood line.

7.3 miles.

Orchard line.

4.6 miles.

In 1917 the Transportation Company shipped into its various stations six hundred and nineteen carloads of freight, and shipped out 2,501 carloads. The passenger receipts show 2,048,117 passages.

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HISTORY OF YAKIMA VALLEY

As part of the great transportation agencies of central Washington we very properly name

WATER TRANSPORTATION.

The Yakima Valley indeed is not, with the exception of its eastern front bordering the Columbia River, upon navigable water. But as part of the great Columbia region, and particularly from the historical retrospect of the early immigrant route by water, the employment of the Columbia River and its trib- utaries for navigation has a permanent interest. Moreover, it is entirely pos- sible to render the Yakima River a navigable stream by canalization. This process is employed in Europe on rivers with less outflow than that of the Yakima. The present vast system of improvements on the Ohio and other lesser eastern rivers shows what may be accomplished both for navigation and power purposes. In the arid sections irrigation by pumping becomes another great means of utilizing the water. The descent of the Yakima is not so great as to preciude the building of dams with locks and its transformation into a series of cainds by which barge navigation from Union Gap down would be entirely feasible. The mouth of the Yakima is about 325 feet above sea level. Several of the railway stations on the O .- W. line have elevations as follows: Benton City, 464; North Prosser, 764; Sunnyside, 741; Granger, 743; Grandview, 814; Midvale, 697 ; Zillah, 807 ;- Buena; 781. Of course it is to be remembered that these stations are at various degrees above the river level. The river just below Union Gap is about 700 feet. Thus the canalization process would be entirely feasible. While at present the expense would doubtless not be justified, yet the time will come, when the Yakima Valley has ten times the population and freightage that it has now, when an open river for barge traffic to the sea and electric power from the dams will mean a saving of millions of dollars in cheap transportation. Meanwhile it is of utmost interest to note that great progress has been made in opening the Columbia River, the main artery of water traffic, to unobstructed navigation. Steamboats of moderate draft can now go- throughout the year from Priest Rapids, at the northern edge of Benton County, to the ocean, about four hundred and fifteen miles. Investigations are now on foot with a view to canalization of the Snake River for both irrigation and all-year navigation. Snake River is now navigable for about seven months of the year from Pittsburg Landing to the ocean, nearly six hundred miles. Thus the time is rapidly coming for a new era in water transportation. This. era is as yet only dawning, but it is obvious that the opening of the Columbia and Snake rivers to traffic by means of canals and locks and improvement of channels will create a new development of production and commerce. As far back as 1872 Senator Mitchell of Oregon brought before Congress the subject of canal and locks at the Cascades of the Columbia. The matter was urged in Congress and in the press, and as a result of ceaseless efforts the people of the Northwest were rewarded in 1896 with the completion of the canal at the Cascades. While that was indeed a great work, it did not after all affect the greater part of the inland Empire. Its benefits were felt only as far as The Dalles. The much greater obstruction between that city and the upper River forbade continuous traffic above The Dalles. Hence the next great endeavor

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was to secure a canal between navigable water at Big Eddy, four miles above The Dalles, and Celilo, eight and a half miles above Big Eddy. It is of great historic interest to call up in this connection the unceasing efforts of Dr. N. G. Blalock of Walla Walla to promote public interest in this vast undertaking and to so focalize that interest backed by insistent demands of the people upon Con- gress as to secure appropriations and to direct the speedy accomplishment of the engineering work necessary to the result. Like all such important public mat- ters this has its alternating advances and retreats, its encouragements and its reverses, but patience and perseverance and the strong force of genuine public benefit triumphed at last over all obstacles. It is indeed melancholy to remem- ber that Dr. Blalock, of whose good deeds and public benefactions this was but one, passed on before the improvements were completed, but it is a satis- faction to remember, too, that before his death in April, 1913, he knew that the appropriations and instructions necessary to insure the work had been made. In fact the work continued from that time with no pause or loss.

The Celilo Canal was completed and thrown open to navigation in April, 1915. In the early part of May the entire River region joined in a week's demonstration which began at Lewiston, Idaho, and ended at Astoria, Oregon. Nearly all the senators, representatives and governors in the Northwest attended. Schools and colleges had a holiday, business was largely suspended, and the entire River region joined in a great jubilee. A fleet of steamers traversed the entire course from Lewiston down, five hundred miles. Lewiston, Asotin and Clarkston were hostesses on May 3d ; Pasco, Kennewick, Wallula and Umatilla on May 4th; Celilo, where the formal ceremonies of dedication occurred, and The Dalles, May 5th; Vancouver and Portland, May 6th; Kalama and Kelso, May 7th ; and Astoria, May 8th, and there the pageant ended with a great excursion to the Ocean Beach.

The city of Kennewick was particularly interested in the celebration of May 4th. This was the only point in the area covered by this history which entertained the great concourse of celebrants. There were, however, many visitors from Richland, Hanford, White Bluffs and other points up-River as well as a number from Prosser and Yakima and other points in the Valley. One of the most interesting features of the Kennewick celebration was the marriage of the Upper and Lower rivers, in which ceremony "Admiral" W. P. Gray of Pasco gave away the bride, one of Kennewick's blushing beauties, and Senator Wesley L. Jones of Yakima pronounced the sacred words which joined bride and groom into the indissoluble bond of union.

As we shall see still further, the agencies of transportation have had most vital relations with the progress of industry in all its forms in the Yakima Valley.

IM& ID EMPIRI

OFFICIAL OPENING OF NAVIGATION ON COLUMBIA RIVER AT KENNEWICK MAY 4, 1915

CHAPTER IV

IRRIGATION IN THE VALLEY

IRRIGATION LAWS-AN ACT REGULATING IRRIGATION AND WATER RIGHTS-RECLAMA- TION ACT-PRIVATE IRRIGATION SYSTEMS-LATER AND LARGER PRIVATE CANALS -IRRIGATION IN THE KITTITAS-THE SUNNYSIDE CANAL-COWICHE AND WIDE HOLLOW IRRIGATION DISTRICT-THE CONGDON DITCH, OR YAKIMA VALLEY CANAL-THE WAPATOX CANAL-NACHES-SELAH CANAL-KONNEWOCK CANAL -LATER HISTORY OF IRRIGATION IN THE LOWER VALLEY-RICHLAND, HANFORD AND WHITE BLUFFS SECTIONS-SUMMARY OF PRIVATE ENTERPRISES-GOVERN- MENT PROJECTS-STATE PROJECTS-DESIGNATION OF UNITS-SUNNYSIDE PROJECT AND EXTENSIONS-THE STORAGE SYSTEM'S-COMPLETION OF THE TIETON PROJECT-COST OF TIETON SYSTEM-THE LAKE RESERVOIRS-BUMPING LAKE RESERVOIR-KACHESS LAKE RESERVOIR-LAKE KEECHELUS RESERVOIR- LAKE CLE ELUM RESERVOIR-ACREAGE UNDER GOVERNMENT PROJECT-SOME OF THE POETRY OF IRRIGATION-ANNOUNCEMENTS, ETC.

The Yakima and Kittitas and Benton counties of today are the product of irrigation. The rainfall varies from about seven inches on the eastern front- age to from ten to twelve at Ellensburg. This is insufficient to mature any ordinary kind of crops. But generous nature has compensated for these arid conditions by lavishing her treasures of snow and rain upon the Cascade heights. From the rugged margin of the valleys westward to the craggy sum- mits the moisture descends in bounteous measure. The annual snowfall at Easton and at the lakes, Keechelus, Kachess, Cle Elum, and lesser ones which feed the Yakima and its tributaries, ranges from six or eight to fifty feet. Even at the town of Cle Elum there has been over fifteen feet of snow in a

season. As the old Egyptians regarded the Nile as the gift of the gods, and the fertile strip of valley land through the desert as the gift of the Nile and in fact made a deity of old Nilus himself, so the Yakimans might call their orchards and gardens the gift of the Cascade Mountains. From these "treas- ures of the snow reserved against the times of trouble" the life-giving streams have come to bear sustenance to those acres and acres of luscious fruit.

Most of farming has much drudgery, and that drudgery, with the isolation which formerly characterized ordinary farming, was responsible for the crav- ing of farming folks to go to the city. But with the intensive farming of an irrigated section come all the art and poetry of the soil. Ceres and Pomona dance with the rosy-footed hours across the circlets of verdure, and the velvet cheeks of peach and fragrance of apple and golden sphere of cantaloupe and swinging clusters of the vine all join with music and choruses of heaven and earth to bring to eye and tongue all the tributes of heart and life held by nature

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in her storehouses of beauty and strength. Possibly somne ranchers just start- ing on a patch of sagebrush, especially when a March gale happens to be blow- ing, may think that the author has drawn a roseate picture of the delights of farm life in Yakima, but let them wait a few years, and the poetry will come.

In fact, in the judgment of the author, after the first necessarily material- istic and practical era in the Yakima Valley shall have softened down into the refinement of more finished life, it may be expected that a race of poets and artists, those rare spirits who have the gift of second sight, will arise here and bring their tributes of song and brush and music to lay at the feet of those beneficent deities from whose hands have flowed those treasures of the sky making possible the harvests of this arid land. The engineer had to come first, but the poet will follow hard after.

A history of irrigation in the Yakima Valley comes near being a history of everything. For every enterprise here, after the first era of range stock, has been the outgrowth of irrigation. And even the stock business in its present features of high-grade stock and dairy products, is the direct outgrowth of irrigation.

For the sake of unity of treatment we shall consider the subject as a whole, covering the entire area of the valley without regard to county lines. We shall be obliged to repeat a little of what has appeared in preceding chap- ters in order that all the links may be duly connected.

IRRIGATION LAWS.

It is of great interest in any view of irrigation history to note that the arid regions of the West presented a new problem in cultivation and demanded new laws. England, from which our common law came, and the eastern half of the United States, for which all our early legislation was framed, and even that earliest part of California and Oregon between the Sierra Nevada and Cascade ranges and the sea shore, have abundant rainfall. No question of the use of water for irrigation had ever arisen in the experience of the Anglo-Saxon builders of this country until they undertook the development of that vast region between the Cascades and Sierras on the west and western Kansas on the east, with southern California on the south.

Then came new problems, problems to the solution of which American engineering skill was entirely adequate, but to which existing laws were entirely unadapted.

Laws necessarily lag far in the rear of industries, and judicial decisions necessarily are still further in the dim vistas of precedent. Hence the active, eager foundation builders of the arid parts of the west found themselves sadly crippled by the fact that courts felt themselves bound by the English common law of riparian rights, until statutes were made adaptable to conditions in an arid country. The English common law provides that an owner of land may divert the stream to use on his own land but that he must return it upon his own land. Practically the only use of water was to turn mill wheels.

The riparian owners along the rivers of California, King's River, San Joaquin, and Sacramento,-the only ones affected by irrigation on a large.

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scale-perceived a magnificent opportunity to "hold up" the irrigationists by levying tribute on them through the application of the English common law.

The Supreme Court of Colorado, with a surprising vision and independence for a judicial body, used the law of common sense and decided that the condi- tions in Colorado were such as to render the English common law inapplicable, and hence they rendered the decision that the inherent right to divert water to distant points for irrigation would be recognized even in advance of a law. But the California courts held the common law binding until supplanted by statute.

Hence there was in progress for several years a struggle between the riparianists and the irrigationists, with some dam-breaking and shot gun argu- ments, verging upon a miniature war, finally terminated by the Wright law of 1889, providing for irrigation districts and condemnation of riparian holdings. By this the vast irrigation systems of Fresno and Tulare counties, with others to a lesser degree, came into assured existence, and the prodigious development of central and southern California as fruit, garden, raisin, and alfalfa sections, began.

The development of the Yakima Valley has had a similar history, though later in time. The Yakima River belongs in point of area with the first five rivers of the country in the amount of territory supplied with water. The rivers sur- passing it are the Snake, Colorado, San Joaquin (including King's River) and equalling it the Salt.

There is probably a larger percentage of land in the tributary basin of the Yakima under existing or projected canals than on any one of the others, but of course the water sheds of the Snake, Colorado, and San Joaquin, are vastly larger, and the gross amount of land served by those rivers is much larger. We are informed by Mr. R. K. Tiffany that the acreage now supplied with water in the Yakima Valley is something more than 275,000 and that with the completion of existing projects, over 600,000 acres will receive water. The three larger rivers named have over a million acres each, while Salt River is in about the same class with the Yakima.

The history of irrigation in the Yakima Valley is practically divisible into two sections. The first is that of private enterprise, the second is that under Government. The latter is plainly to absorb the former. Whatever we may think of the philosophy of Government ownership as compared with private it is clear that the logic of events, especially since our nation has entered the World War, is for Government control, if not ownership, of the essentials of production. Moreover, it is clear that Federal rather than State management of the essentials of production and distribution is "writ down" in the book of destiny. If we can adjust ourselves to this change of front of the universe and still preserve that individualism and personal initiative which have made America what she is, and if we can still retain that Democratic idealism for which we are now fighting (to "Make the World Safe for Democracy"),-we shall solve the problem of the ages; the union of personal freedom and governmental efficiency. If that problem can be solved, the United States, the spirit of Amer- icanism, must do it. If we do not accomplish this as the chief result of this war, the world must confess that the problem is insoluble, that the universe is a failure, and that there is no rational God.

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History of the Yakima Valley, Washington; comprising Yakima, Kittitas, and Benton Counties, Vol. I, Part 41

Author: Lyman, William Denison, 1852-1920 Publication date: 1919 Publisher: [Chicago] S.J. Clarke Number of Pages: 1134

Author: Lyman, William Denison, 1852-1920
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: [Chicago] S.J. Clarke
Number of Pages: 1134