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14 stories matching arid
- The Great Reclamation: How the Feds Are Remaking the West
A rare, detailed look at the massive engineering projects intended to turn arid public lands into thousands of small, self-sustaining family farms.
- The Price of Poor Irrigation
Federal experts warn that Yakima Valley farmers are drowning their own crops through systemic waste and lack of drainage planning.
- The Fight for Arid Lands
Washington commercial leaders organize to reform state irrigation laws, a prerequisite for federal intervention in arid land reclamation.
- The Bureaucratic Standoff Over Yakima Water
State Land Commissioner S. A. Calvert returns from D.C. after hitting a wall with the Interior Department over irrigation rights.
- The Great Irrigation Shortchange
Washington's arid lands remained parched while millions of dollars in federal irrigation funds, contributed largely by Washington and Oregon, were diverted elsewhere.
- The Touchet Farmers’ Revolt Against Water Monopolies
Tired of paying exorbitant fees to private irrigation companies, local farmers are going rogue—and going underground.
- The 30-Mile Tunnel That Would Have Turned the Big Bend Green
Federal reclamation engineers looked at damming the Spokane River to water two million acres of dry Columbia Basin land — and then said the money wasn't there yet.
- The Fight for the Valley's Water
North Yakima and Ellensburg join forces to block a deal giving a private irrigation company exclusive control over mountain lake water.
- The Miracle Crop for Dry Soils
Industrial agent R.C. Judson reports that experimental alfalfa strains are thriving in the arid soils of the Walla Walla region.
- The Desert Land Rush of 1903
Speculators and settlers stake claims in the arid sagebrush near Pasco, betting that irrigation will transform the wasteland into a garden.
- The President's Visit: Roosevelt, the 'Mysterious Syndicate,' and the Fight for Pasco’s Soil
In May 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt toured Walla Walla, drawing massive crowds and sparking local fears of land speculators. While his speech at Whitman College praised pioneer virtues, a parallel editorial warned that a 'Seattle Syndicate' was hoarding arid land near Pasco, betting on federal irrigation projects to inflate prices for settlers.
- Turning the Desert Green: A Bold Plan to Irrigate the Pasco Sands
A new company, backed by railroad officials and engineering innovators, aims to pump Columbia River water into the Franklin County arid lands.
- The $5 Billion Plan to Remake the Arid West
At the National Irrigation Congress in Spokane, Interior Secretary Ballinger and Chief Forester Pinchot squared off over whether public bonds or private capital should reclaim the West.
- Drilling for Water Under Washington's Dry Wheat Country
A federal geologist probes the desert east of the Columbia and the Big Bend wheatlands to see whether deep wells can water the dry interior — and finds pressure underground, but no free-flowing artesian springs.