History of public land law development

page 658

658 HISTORY OF PUBLIC LAND LAW DEVELOPMENT Amounts Credited to Reclamation Fund from Sales, Fees, and Commissions" To 1903 Arizona____________________________ $ 125,605 California___________________________1,287,119 Colorado___________________________1,139,067 Idaho______________________________1,149,667 Kansas_____________________________ 67,553 Montana___________________________1,324,546 Nebraska_______....._______________ 354,036 Nevada_____________________________ 35,879 New Mexico............_____________ 297,365 North Dakota_______________________2,456,340 Oklahoma__________________________1 ,824.881 Oregon_____________________________2,795,690 South Dakota_______________________ 546,982 Utah______________________________ 234,344 Washington_________________________1 ,894,069 Wyoming_________________________ 658,686 a Secretary of the Interior, Annual Report, 1903, p. 295. selection and initiation to the Secreary of the Interior, an extraordinary power that Congress was later to regret. With a number of million dollars available, there was bound to be a scramble to have projects adopted in states where the largest income for the fund was being produced and in states which had effective lobbyists. It was important, therefore, that early action be taken to place responsibility for the program in firm hands familiar with all chat had developed during the past decade concerning the movement for reclamation and at the same time skilled in water and engineering problems. For the moment, at least, the Geological Survey offered the best refuge for the program for, though this Bureau had shown its political adaptability, it was staffed with experts. Frederick H. Newell, chief hydrographer, was placed in charge of getting the program under way in what was an adjunct of the Geological Survey and which soon became a separate bureau, the Reclamation Service. In carrying out the reclamation program the first task was to investigate what projects had already been built or were under way and second, to investigate the feasibility and cost of future government projects, always bearing in mind the necessity of allocating the funds within the requirements established by law and not forgetting political questions. Newell's staff devoted 1902-1903 to preliminary work including mapping, diamond drilling, water measurements, studies of underground water, engineering problems, and the extent of areas capable of irrigation on the Salt and Gila Rivers in Arizona, the Colorado, Owens, and Salinas in California, the Gunnison and South Platte in Colorado, the Snake in Idaho, the Milk in Montana, the North Platte in Nebraska, the Truckee in Nevada, the Pecos in New Mexico, the Yakima in Washington, and the Shoshone in Wyoming.02 Already somewhat advanced by private groups, the Salt River and the Truckee River reclamation projects were taken over first. On the Salt River, plans called for the construction of a high dam and many miles of canals and distribution systems, with the object of irrigating 200,000 acres. The Truckee River, which flowed out of Lake Tahoe into sinks in the Nevada desert, could be diverted to the less well endowed Carson River and could irrigate good nonalkali land. By late 1906 the Reclamation Service had adopted projects in all but one (Oklahoma) of the original 16 states and territories authorized for Federal irrigation development.63 Included were numerous projects that have since become well known 62 Geological Survey, Twenty-Fourth Annual Report, 1903, pp. 219-35. 63 Texas was added to the 16 by the Act of Feb. 25, 1905. 33 Stat. 814. The number of adoptions were: 1903-4, 1904-7, 1905-9, 1906-3, 1907-1. Dorothy Lampen, Economic and Social Aspects of Federal Reclamation (Baltimore, 1930), p. 53.