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.
Active steps will at once be taken by the Northern Pacific & Yakima Irrigating company to irrigate the largest body of land ever put under irrigating ditches in the country. This decision was reached yesterday upon the presentation by William Ham Hall, of California, consulting engineer of the government arid land surveys, of the favorable report on the ditch system. The first ditch to be constructed will cover between 50,000 and 60,000 acres in the Sunnyside country, south of North Yakima. A final survey has been ordered for completion by January 1st, 1891, when work will be commenced. Hall says the country is well adapted to the culture of all kinds of fruit, and the Northern Pacific railroad is interested largely in the project.
“The first ditch to be constructed will cover between 50,000 and 60,000 acres in the Sunnyside country.”
The Sunnyside irrigation project was a foundational moment for Yakima’s agricultural identity, marking the transition from open range to the massive fruit orchards that define the region today. The tension between corporate-led water development and public need for irrigation continues to be a central theme in Washington water rights and agricultural politics.
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