The Desert Bloom: Yakima’s Irrigation Dream
A visiting irrigation expert predicts that 150,000 acres of arid Yakima Valley land will be transformed into a garden through large-scale canal projects.
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Albert Kleinschmit and Walter N. Granger, of Montana, both of whom are extensively interested in irrigating systems, are at The Tacoma Hotel. 'At present,' said Mr. Kleinschmit, 'we are preparing to place a ditch in the Yakima Valley, which will reclaim 150,000 acres of arid lands, and render it a garden spot for the raising of vegetables and fruits. Did you ever notice that lands that are irrigated do not require fertilizers in order to keep up the strength of the soil? Well, it is a fact that the irrigating of land solves the question of strengthening the soil by means of fertilizers. Lands that are irrigated produce much larger crops than those that are not. On an average it will cost $6 an acre to irrigate land in Washington.'
“The strength that brings large crops is contained in the water.”
This early advocacy for irrigation transformed the Yakima Valley from a scrubland into a global agricultural powerhouse. It reflects the fundamental tension in Pacific Northwest development: the engineering of a landscape to make it profitable at the cost of its natural arid ecology.
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