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232 stories matching ditch
- The Marsh That Could Feed a City: Snohomish’s Hidden Goldmine
A detailed survey of the vast wetlands between Snohomish and the Skykomish River reveals thousands of acres of fertile land, drained by new ditches and accessible by scow, waiting for developers to turn swamp into wealth.
- Don't Bond the Valley to a Dry Ditch
A Wenatchee editor warns that a $100,000 Wright-law irrigation bond would repeat the Kennewick failure—leaving settlers with debt, abandoned orchards, and no water.
- The Battle for the Irrigation Ditch
North Yakima residents clash with the city council over the right to water their gardens after a street grading project cuts off their supply.
- The Tolt Ditch Dispute
A local landowner writes to the editor to clarify his role in filling a ditch, contradicting previous reports.
- Farmers Take Flood Control Into Their Own Hands
Facing constant inundation and corporate inaction, local valley farmers plan to bypass the existing canal system.
- A Midnight Ditch Plugging in the Snoqualmie Valley
A water dispute near Tolt (now Carnation) turned neighbor against neighbor, with accusations that O'Leary plugged a shared ditch under cover of darkness.
- The Farmers' Plan to Drain Lake Washington
Valley farmers eye an inexpensive ditch as the only solution to the catastrophic flooding threatening their livelihood.
- A Valley of Perennial Wealth: The Excursion That Sold the Yakima Boom
A Puyallup delegation rides the Northern Pacific to North Yakima, tours the new Sunnyside Canal, and comes home convinced that irrigated sagebrush is the richest farmland in Washington.
- Richland Cleans Up Its Forgotten Ditch
Stagnant water and mosquito breeding grounds prompt urgent civic repairs in districts three and seven.
- A Night Fall Into a Seattle Ditch—and the Supreme Court's Hard Answer
Allie Hobert knew the ditch was there. The state Supreme Court ruled that knowledge barred her $1,750 claim against the city.
- A Senate Seat, a Caucus, and a Yakima Ditch Deal
In Olympia, Republicans moved to settle the U.S. Senate contest between Ankeny and Wilson—while opponents circulated a story that Wilson had traded a Congressional favor for stock in a Yakima irrigation scheme.
- The 'Irrigation Army' Scheme
Capitalists propose to end the unemployment crisis in Eastern Washington by putting members of the Industrial Army to work on massive irrigation projects.
- The Desert Blooms: Bringing Irrigation to the Selah Valley
A ambitious engineering effort to bring water to 50,000 acres of arid volcanic ash soil promises to transform the North Yakima region into a premier agricultural hub.
- Protests Against the White River Ditch
A contentious battle over land damages and irrigation pits the county commissioners against local landowners, headed for court.
- Farmers Take Matters Into Their Own Hands to Escape Floods
Tired of waiting for the county to act, valley farmers organize a private committee to drain Lake Washington floodwaters.
- The Irrigation Boom of 1890
North Yakima gears up for a massive expansion of agricultural infrastructure and railroad investment.
- The Cricket War at Stratford
Farmers in Stratford scramble to maintain ditches as a massive migration of crickets threatens to devour wheat fields.
- Water on Mortgage: A Seattle Man Offers to Irrigate Kittitas — If the Farmers Sign Away Ten Years
J. W. Wells proposes a ditch across the east end of the Kittitas valley at $1 to $1.25 an acre a year. At the mass meeting only 6,500 acres sign on, and the deal is left to W. H. Peterson to sell.
- The Water Monopoly Standing Between Yakima and Its Best Orchards
A fruit grower warns that the Washington Irrigation Company’s control of reservoir sites could block the high-line ditch needed to open Yakima County’s frost-safe uplands to orchards.
- Draining the White River Valley
Engineers plan two new drainage ditches from Kent to the Black River to reclaim farmland from swamp.
- A Train Derails in the Smoky Woods
A Satsop Railroad locomotive plunges off the tracks after hitting a fallen tree in the fire-choked timberlands near Shelton.
- The Hanford Ditch War Goes Federal
A power and irrigation utility takes the state to court to fight regulated water rates, signaling a long battle over regional infrastructure.
- Fisticuffs at City Hall
A drainage ditch dispute erupts into a physical brawl between two men in the county commissioners' corridor.
- Disgruntled Workers Dynamited Flume in Yakima
After failing to receive pay for their labor, a crew of ditch workers turned to dynamite to exact revenge on the Leadbetter Ditch Company.
- The Desert to Bloom in Sunnyside
A major irrigation project backed by the Northern Pacific Railroad promises to transform 60,000 acres of arid land.
Also about this, in other words
- Ditch Dispute Leads to Violence in Naches Valley
A simmering property conflict between two farming families erupted into a violent armed confrontation.
- The Great Ditch: How Snohomish Settlers Tamed the Marsh
Before the land was dry, a few determined pioneers took shovels and grit to the wetlands behind Snohomish to carve a new path for trade and transit.
- The White River Ditch Stalls
A landmark court decision strikes down the drainage assessment law, leaving farmers and property owners in limbo.
- The Struggle to Tame the White River
An engineer’s radical proposal to prevent the flooding that threatened Seattle’s growing suburbs, blaming deforestation for a changing climate.
- A Farmer Dams a Ditch, and Neighbors Build a Dike
In the town of Tolt, a landowner’s waterway blockade turns into a muddy standoff, with farmers throwing up dikes to keep their fields from flooding.
- Homeowner Battles City Over Street Ditch
W. H. Gleason sues the City of Seattle for $1,000, claiming a city-sanctioned ditch blocked access to his Washington Street rentals.
- The Legislators Who Came to See a Ditch—and Left Believers
A steamboat tour of Smith Cove and Lake Union turns Eastern Washington lawmakers into ship-canal converts.
- An Exile at the Edge of Home
While the town celebrated the completion of the new irrigation ditch, a man watched from the hills, barred from the home he once built.