USA > Washington > Benton County > History of the Yakima Valley, Washington; comprising Yakima, Kittitas, and Benton Counties, Vol. I > Part 44
USA > Washington > Kittitas County > History of the Yakima Valley, Washington; comprising Yakima, Kittitas, and Benton Counties, Vol. I > Part 44
USA > Washington > Yakima County > History of the Yakima Valley, Washington; comprising Yakima, Kittitas, and Benton Counties, Vol. I > Part 44
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This gives a total in 1902-5 of about 194,000 acres. Probably 50,000 was in productive cultivation. The reader will understand that this is a rough esti- mate only. A considerable addition was made in some sections during the period from 1905 to 1916. This was especially the case with the Columbia River section, where the addition of Kennewick Highlands and further enlarge- ments in the White Bluffs and Hanford sections brought probably 20,000 acres more into the irrigated areas.
GOVERNMENT PROJECTS
In entering upon the very important section of irrigation history covered by the Government enterprises, we may note that it is divisible into two natural
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HISTORY OF YAKIMA VALLEY
divisions; first, the areas reclaimed and the distribution system of canals; sec- ond, the dam and reservoir systems and the trunk canals.
The first part may again be subdivided into the chief sections contemplated in the Reclamation service. The whole development is known as the Yakima project and may be roughly subdivided into six large units: the Kittitas, the Tieton, the Wapato, the Sunnyside, the High Line, and the Benton. The res- ervoir system includes storage dams at Lakes Kachess, Keechelus and Cle Elum, at the head of the Yakima River, at Bumping Lake, and at McAllister Meadows on the Tieton River.
Each of these subdivisions contains matter worthy of extended treatment. The limits of our space, however, forbid more than a limited treatment of the general plans and problems, with some consideration of the probable outlook for future development.
A valuable part of the Government report, from the standpoint of general history, deals with the antecedent conditions leading to the initiation of Gov- ernment work. From the Reclamation service report we derive the stages in this course of events.
In the lack of space for details we may briefly outline these stages.
Immediately after the passage of the Reclamation act, June 17, 1902, peti- tions began to pour in for investigation of different possible projects. Mr. T. K. Noble of Seattle was engaged by F. H. Newell, director of the United States Geological Survey, to make a reconnoissance of the Yakima and Okanogan val- leys with a view to reclamation. An office was established in Spokane in August, 1903, from which the investigations were carried on, and Mr. Noble was placed in charge as division engineer.
In June, 1905, the office was moved to Yakima, since it had become clear that the main part of the irrigating would be done in that section. A Pacific division was established in Portland in September, 1905. The division included Washington, Oregon, California and Nevada.
D. C. Henny became consulting engineer and E. G. Hopson became super- vising engineer of that division. In February, 1909, the Washington. division was created, embracing the state of Washington and northern Idaho, and C. H. Swigart was made supervising engineer. During the period covered by those years the following projects were investigated: Synarep, Methow, Kootenai, Colville, Chelan, Big Bend, Palouse and Priest Rapids. After investigation of the above projects the engineers rendered an adverse decision as to taking them up at that time. During the same time they investigated and reported favorably upon taking up the Yakima and the Okanogan projects.
After investigation the board of engineers, consisting of Messrs. A. P. Davis, D. C. Henny, A. J. Wiley and T. A. Noble, in a session from April 10 to April 30, 1905, made an elaborate report. The essential points in that report were: first, that the natural flow of the Yakima was already appropriated to a degree which exhausted its low water stage in Summer and Fall; and second, that to carry out any extensive reclamation there must be an extensive reservoir system for storage of flood waters. The report proceeded to point out three large units in the Yakima Basin, which, with such storage, might be feasible.
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HISTORY OF YAKIMA VALLEY
These were the Kittitas, the Tieton, and the Sunnyside. The latter in- cluded the old Ledbetter project.
This report further stated that the Washington Irrigation Company, then owning the Sunnyside system, had made a proposition to the Government to sell their holdings for a cash payment of $250,000, with the obligation upon the Government to continue the delivery of water to the lands under irrigation and to deliver water to the lands owned by the company, then amounting to about 46,000 acres. For such delivery of water to the lands the company was to make an annual maintenance payment of $1 an acre. The report urged that the Sunnyside system be absorbed by Government, as part of a large project for development of the entire valley. It appeared that the Sunnyside district was overappropriating the water and under the existing conditions was a menace to the rest of the valley, whereas, if owned by Government, it would not be a menace, but would be a defense against the encroachments of subse- quent claimants. It is further pointed out that among lands which might be covered by an extension of the Sunnyside Canal were about 57,000 acres of land selected by the state of Washington, for which a provisional contract had been made with the company under the provisions of the Carey Act. That part of the report concludes with these words: "The complete development of the Yakima Basin depends upon the complete and economical development of the storage facilities existing. If the reservoir sites are allowed to pass into private hands, it is probable that they will be insufficiently developed."
Under date of May 4, 1904, the chief engineer approved recommendations of the board providing first, for the immediate survey of Lakes Cle Elum, Kachess, Keechelus, Bumping and McAllister Meadows, and any other prom- ising reservoir sites ; second, for an examination of the Sunnyside district with a view to its extension ; and, third, continuance of preliminary surveys of the Kittitas, Cowiche, Tieton and Ledbetter projects.
As a result of these investigations a body of data was submitted to the two boards of engineers, the first composed of A. P. Davis, Morris Bien, D. C. Henny, and Joseph Jacobs; the second, of A. P. Davis, A. J. Wiley and D. C. Henny. The first board recommended on October 16th that the Tieton project be authorized and that $1,000,000 be set aside for it. The second board made a number of recommendations, of which the first was that $1,000,000 be set aside for the purchase of the property of the Washington Irrigation Company and the construction of the Sunnyside division of the Yakima project, that no con- struction be undertaken until all private water claimants have adjusted their claims, that no construction be undertaken till a satisfactory understanding be had with the Indian Office in regard to water on the Reservation, that the Ledbetter and Kittitas divisions receive due consideration as funds become available.
These decisions of the boards and their approval by the Interior Depart- ment may be considered the foundation of the vast project by Government which soon entered into the active period of construction. A mass of details had to be considered as preliminary to actual work. The most complicated was the adjustment of private claims. As one means of securing harmonious action
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HISTORY OF YAKIMA VALLEY
the Water Users' Association system was adopted, providing for stock sub- scriptions by water users. Special mention is made in the Government report of the great aid received by an executive committee of the Commercial Club of North Yakima in adjusting these private rights.
In view of the prevalent opinion that Government operations are slow and hampered by red tape, it is interesting to note that on March 27, 1906, the as- sistant secretary of the interior wrote to the director of the Geological Survey, definitely approving their recommendations, setting aside $1,000,000, and $750,000, for the Tieton and Sunnyside projects respectively, and stating that the settlement of all private claims had been passed upon favorably by the assistant attorney-general of the United States. On July 6, 1906, a board of engineers, consisting of A. J. Wiley, D. C. Henny, S. G. Hopson and Joseph Jacobs, entered actively upon making contracts and other arrangements for executing the recommendations.
STATE PROJECTS
One special question requiring adjustment was the relation of Govern- ment plans to state plans. As a result of the Carey Act, the state a number of years earlier had appropriated a large body of land in the lower valley and had made filings on water on the Tieton. This was a vast scheme. A survey had been made in 1895 of what was to be known as the Naches and Columbia River Irrigation Canal, to be constructed to have an intake on the north side of the Naches, to cross the Yakima by an inverted siphon, circle Moxee Valley, pass through the ridge east of Union Gap by a tunnel 6,100 feet long, and continue down the Valley to Rattlesnake Mountain to the lands overlooking the Colum- bia River. The plan contemplated using Bumping Lake as a reservoir. The canal would have carried two thousand second feet of water and would have been 140 miles long. It would have blanketed to some degree both the Sunny- side and the Ledbetter projects. The state had about 57,000 acres of land in the lower valley which would have furnished the special interest in construct- ing this canal. A good deal of friction arose between the upper and lower val- leys over this project, the upper opposing and the lower favoring it. Before the Government plans could be executed it became necessary to make an adjust- ment of these state plans.
An act of the State Legislature of March 4, 1905, granted to the United States Reclamation Service the power to exercise the right of Eminent Domain in acquiring lands, water rights, and other property in pursuance of its under- takings, and withdrew from filing for benefit of the United States all unappro- priated water in the Yakima River.
By a number of notices the Department of the Interior notified the state commissioner of lands of its filings on water and rights of way. Extension of time for withdrawal of the waters of the Yakima was granted from time to time as the magnitude of the work became manifest.
DESIGNATION OF UNITS
On March 9, 1909, the Secretary of the Interior gave official recognition to the different units, as follows: Kittitas, Wapato, Benton, Sunnyside, Tieton,
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HISTORY OF YAKIMA VALLEY
and Storage. Each of these has practically a history of its own, and such his- tory may be found in extenso in the elaborate reports of the Reclamation office in Yakima.
SUNNYSIDE PROJECT AND EXTENSIONS
Owing to the great magnitude of this project and its relations to previous development, many important questions arose. The personnel of the force mainly engaged in the development here since the Reclamation service assumed control was as follows: C. H. Swigart, supervising engineer; E. McCulloch, project engineer; R. K. Tiffany, project manager; E. A. Moritz, and W. H. Burrage, assistant engineers.
As already stated the Washington Irrigation Company made propositions for the sale of its property, and in pursuance of the business of transfer, a valu- ation was made, by which it was estimated that it would cost $436,382 to repro- duce the canal system, with an additional estimate of $86,175 for the water rights. The final settlement called for the purchase of the project for $250,000, with the additional consideration to the Washington Irrigation Company of a perpetual water right for its remaining irrigable lands, for which, however, it should pay the annual maintenance charge of $1 per acre. Up to the time of transfer the company had sold water rights for a little more than 44,500 acres, exclusive of the Konnewock water rights of 3,000 acres, assumed by them ; and they were actually furnishing water to 36,000 acres. It is of interest to note that development proceeded so rapidly that in 1912 there was open for irriga- tion, including private lands, a little over 80,500 acres, while about 63,000 acres were actually receiving water. At the present date, 1918, there is an area actually receiving water of about 90,000 acres.
METHODS OF LOCAL MANAGEMENT ILLUSTRATED
As an interesting example of the usage in local management and reporting the same in the country papers, we include here a notice and report in the "Mabton Chronicle" of November 8, 1918:
NOTICE TO SHAREHOLDERS OF SUNNYSIDE WATER USERS' ASSOCIATION
Notice is hereby given to shareholders of Sunnyside Water Users' Asso- ciation that the annual precinct meetings of said association will be held in the several precincts on Saturday, November 30, 1918, at 10 A. M., at the respec- tive places hereinafter designated :
No. 1 (Zillah)-Odd Fellows Hall, town of Zillah, Washington.
No. 2 (Outlook)-Outlook Hall, town of Outlook, Washington.
No. 3. (Sunnyside)-Odd Fellows Hall, town of Sunnyside, Washington. No. 4 (Riverside)-Wendell Phillips Schoolhouse, Riverside, Washington. No. 5 (Grandview)-Moody's Hall, town of Grandview, Washington. No. 6 (Mabton)-Town Hall, town of Mabton, Washington.
No. 7 (Prosser)-Court House, town of Prosser, Washington.
Such meetings will be for the purpose of considering the voting upon the estimate of expenses herewith submitted and for the transaction of any other
(24)
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HISTORY OF YAKIMA VALLEY
business which may legally come before such meetings. In Precincts Nos. 2 (Outlook), 4 (Riverside), 5 (Grandview), and 6 (Mabton), a trustee is to be nominated in each, the names of such nominees to be voted upon at the annual meeting of the shareholders on December 3, 1918.
Notice is hereby given that the annual meeting of said shareholders will be held Tuesday, December 3, 1918, at 10 A. M., in Odd Fellows Hall, in the town of Sunnyside, Washington, for the election of four trustees of said asso- ciation, one each from Precincts Nos. 2 (Outlook), 4 (Riverside), 5 (Grand- view), and 6 (Mabton), for considering and voting upon the estimate of ex- penses herewith submitted, and for the transaction of any other business which may legally come before such meeting.
ESTIMATE OF EXPENSES OF SUNNYSIDE WATER USERS' ASSOCIATION FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING NOVEMBER 30, 1919
Account.
Estimate.
Secretary salary
$ 900.00
Clerical
500.00
Trustees' meetings
300.00
Legal
500.00
Postage, printing and office supplies
300.00
Miscellaneous office expenses
50.00
Recording
10.00
Building and lots
Taxes
35.00
Water rental
300.00
Refunding assessments
250.00
Auditing
40.00
Contingent fund
400.00
Commissions for collection of assessments
200.00
Total
$3,785.00
Dated at Sunnyside, Washington, this 5th day of November, 1918.
G. E. RODMAN, Secretary.
THE STORAGE SYSTEMS
In the necessary limitations of space imposed upon us we can take but hurried glances at this all-important part of the history.
It is evident that the storage systems compose the mainspring of the whole matter. As determined by Government in entering upon the work, the only way to secure extensive development was by impounding the flood waters at the head of the Yakima and its tributaries. It was clear from the first that there were three main reservoir basins. These were the three lakes, Cle Elum,
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HISTORY OF YAKIMA VALLEY
Kachess, and Keechelus at the head of the main river, the Bumping Lake at the head of that river, and McAllister Meadows on the Tieton.
The Tieton had long been recognized by the old timers in Yakima as a source of water supply. We must note the different plans which contemplated using this inviting stream.
Probably the first conception of the use of this stream was that of Charles Schanno in 1876. He made a crude survey with a view to using water for fluming out wood. Then came a suggestion by D. W. Stair in 1890. He pro- posed that water from the glaciers at the head of the Tieton be diverted into the Cowiche. W. H. Redman investigated, but pronounced the project im- practicable. In 1891, in consequence of the state law passed providing for irrigation districts, the Cowiche and Wide Hollow district was formed. Mr. Strobach and Mr. Winchester, on behalf of the directors of the district, engaged Guy Sterling to make a survey. Mr. Sterling spent about $4,000 investigating the Tieton canon and made a report which in all essential features was the same as that made later by Charles M. Swigart for the Reclamation service which was actually put into existence, though Mr. Swigart, not know- ing of Mr. Sterling's survey, arrived at his findings independently.
In August, 1892, the district voted to issue bonds for half a million dollars for constructing this work, but the hard times immediately following set the whole plan aside. In 1895 E. C. Burlingame, an engineer of much energy and ability, now at Walla Walla as manager of the Gardena project, made an elaborate survey of the Tieton as the source of a supply for lands west of Yakima. He did some construction work, which can still be seen on the steep hillside on the south side of the Naches. But the construction at that time of the Congdon Ditch cut off a part of the lands which Mr. Burlingame hoped to irrigate and the times were unfavorable for financing so expensive an enterprise, and he was obliged to abandon it. At about the same date, as we have seen, the state made plans for use of Bumping Lake and the Tieton Basin. In 1896 B. F. Barge and others formed a plan for storing the flood waters of the North fork of the Cowiche. They began work on this reservoir November 4, 1901. At this point George S. Rankin and George Weikel, having known of the Sterling survey of the Tieton, became interested and proceeded to acquire a large part of the Barge property and entered upon a survey which covered practically the entire Tieton project.
It became known by Mr. Rankin and his associates that there was not sufficient unappropriated water for so large an enterprise as they contemplated and hence they went before the legislature of 1904 with proposals for a law to allow corporations to impound streams and create reservoirs for irrigation purposes. This bill passed the state senate, but was defcated in the house. Just at this juncture the Reclamation service of the United States was making investigations, and Mr. Rankin, perceiving justly that future developments lay along that line, placed the case before the Yakima Commercial Club and the leading business men of the city, with the result that there came to be a pow- erful demand for entrance of the Reclamation service into the Yakima field.
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HISTORY OF YAKIMA VALLEY
These were essential stages in the progress of events leading to storage on the Tieton and the Bumping.
COMPLETION OF THE TIETON PROJECT.
The project involved not only main and lateral canals, but tunnels, roads, 7 telephone. lines, and buildings for temporary and permanent use, patrol houses, repair shops, construction camps, and an elaborate system of transportation and maintenance.
Disastrous floods occurred during the period of building, especially in November, 1906 and 1909, causing expense and delay.
The main work, after the necessary preliminaries of surveys, road making, house building, letting contracts, and assembling of equipment and forces, was completed in 1909, 1910, and 1911. The completed system has twelve miles of concrete-lined main canal, 89.86 miles of main laterals, and 238.33 miles of sub-laterals. There are five tunnels, as follows: Steeple tunnel, 100 feet long ; Columnar tunnel, 1,200 feet long; Tieton tunnel, 2,730 feet long; North Fork tunnel, 3,810 feet long. Out of the total length of twelve miles of main there is thus about two miles of tunnel. The tunnel work was begun in 1907, two years in advance of the canal work. The unit of distribution canals was naturally divisible into three parts; the Naches, the Cowiche-Yakima, and the Wide Hollow. They were constructed in the order given, in 1909, 1910, and 1911. The Naches branch, comprising about 10,000 acres, was ready for water on May 15, 1909. During the next year the second branch, also of 10,000 acres, received its water supply. The Wide Hollow branch was declared open by proclamation of the Secretary of the Interior on January 24, 1912. There is a total area under the project of about 32,000 acres.
COST OF TIETON SYSTEM
The Tieton project was an expensive one, and yet owing to its manifold attractions of soil, location, and market, it has rapidly developed during the six years in which it has been open to settlement. By notice of the Secretary of the Interior, March 21, 1913, payments were fixed on a ten year basis, with interest included in the payment as given :
First installment
$ 9.30
Second installment.
1.50
Third installment.
3.00
Fourth installment
1 4.00
Fifth installment.
5.20
Sixth installment 10.00 1 1 1
Seventh installment
15.00
Eighth installment
15.00
Ninth installment.
15.00
Tenth installment.
15.00
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A total of $93.00. The provision was made that at least 50% of the irri- gable part of any holding must be improved.
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HISTORY OF YAKIMA VALLEY
By the Reclamation Extension Act of August 13, 1914, the time of pay- ment was extended to twenty years, without interest. The first four payments are each 2%, the next two 4% each, and the remaining fourteen are each 6%.
In 1917 the newly organized Yakima-Tieton Irrigation district authorized an additional expenditure of $11.63 per acre on 32,000 acres for the purpose of enlarging the Main Canal and improving the distribution system to provide an increased water supply.
THE LAKE RESERVOIRS.
The low water flow of the Yakima and its tributaries is relatively small, while the flood waters are enormous. It was therefore a very easy and natural deduction that to carry out the vast plans for irrigating practically the entire valley, immense impounding works must be constructed. Natural reser- voir sites exist in the lakes at the head of the Yakima and its first affluent, the Cle Elum, and in Bumping Lake with its outlet of the same name tributary to the Naches, and in McAllister Meadows on the Tieton. With the initiation of irrigation in the Kittitas the use of the lakes at the head of the river was con- sidered. Surveys were made in the early nineties by the N. P., Yakima, and Kittitas Company, and a decade later by the Yakima Development Company. Considerable work was actually performed by the Cascade Canal Company and a timber crib dam was completed by them at Lake Keechelus on June 1, 1904.
While the Tieton project was in progress initial work was beginning on the reservoir sites. The climatic conditions, as well as the instrumentalities of this work, will be rendered more clear to our readers by some of the pictures in this volume.
A general plan of construction was adopted by which the Bumping Lake dam was to be constructed in 1904-10, the Lake Kachess dam in 1912-15.
The Cle Elum and McAllister Meadows projects were held up pending the completion of the other three. One of the important side issues of the work was clearing the valuable timber from the area that would be submerged. It was estimated that there was about 64,000,000 feet of merchantable timber that would be submerged. The Government accordingly offered these bodies of timber for sale. Bids were made by which different contractors undertook to clear the timber.
A saw mill was built by Joseph F. Walsh on Lake Cle Elum in 1909. The contractors on the Lake Keechelus site erected a saw mill and began work at the same time. The contractors on the Lake Kachess site failed to fulfill their engagements, and in 1912 the Government annulled the contract and included the timber work at that point in the regular Reclamation service budget.
BUMPING LAKE RESERVOIR.
This first of the reservoirs was begun during the Fall of 1908 and com- pleted in November, 1910. Some interesting data may be given of the general features of this unit. The drainage area is 68 square miles, the area of the lake is 1,350 acres, the capacity is 34,000 acre feet, the spillway can discharge
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HISTORY OF YAKIMA VALLEY
6,000 second feet, and the outlet can discharge 550 second feet. The lake is at an elevation above sea level of 3,400 feet.
The division, both preliminary and construction, was in charge of Charles H. Swigart as supervising engineer, with J. S. Conway, J. D. Fauntleroy. James Stuart, and E. H. Baldwin, engaged in the various details of construction.
KACHESS LAKE RESERVOIR.
The work by the Cascade Canal Company already referred to, completed in 1904, was the subject of much negotiation. It was finally settled without the threatened litigation by an agreement that the company pay the Govern- ment $10,000 in equal annual installments and surrender all their rights, receiv- ing in compensation a perpetual right to 16,800 acre feet of water from the storage works between July 20th and October 16th of each year. This was an interesting and important feature of the history of this project, as demon- strating the policy of the Federal Government to acquire undisputed control and at the same time recognize the private initiative and pioneer enterprise, so vital and characteristic in all American development.
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