The Desert Drill: A Quest for Water in North Yakima
A bold territorial experiment to strike water in the arid landscape of North Yakima hit a snag as machinery languished on the wrong side of the mountains.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The Territory appropriated the sum of six thousand dollars to be used for the purpose of sinking an artesian well at some point in the Territory to be decided upon. North Yakima was the chosen spot. The contract was secured by the Wilsco Bros. of Seattle, one of our enterprising firms. The drill was commenced only this week, the delay of six weeks being caused by the weight of the main tunnel, the machinery being on the said side of the mountain. As this is an experimental well, its progress will be watched with much interest all over the Territory.
“As this is an experimental well, its progress will be watched with much interest all over the Territory.”
This 1887 report on the struggle to tap water for agricultural expansion mirrors the perennial tension in Washington State over water rights, irrigation infrastructure, and the desertification of the Yakima Valley, which remains a cornerstone of the state's agriculture and a site of intense modern water-allocation debates.
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