The Desert Transformed: A Correspondent's View of North Yakima
A visiting writer discovers that irrigation is rapidly turning the 'arid' sagebrush plains into a lush, productive garden of fruit and hops.
The story, cleaned up
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Major Goldsborough, writing in the Tacoma Globe, describes the Yakima Valley as a landscape once considered a desert, now rapidly becoming a fertile garden through irrigation. Arriving via Northern Pacific train, the correspondent notes the well-laid streets of North Yakima, adorned with shade trees fed by Natchez River water flowing through street-side ditches. Visits to the farm of Daniel E. Lesh, a member of the state horticultural board, reveal a high level of productivity, with orchards yielding peaches, apples, and grapes despite an 'off year.' Lesh explains that the land, once sagebrush, requires only water to flourish. Other successful ventures, such as the Moxee valley's alfalfa fields and Scudder's dairy farm, indicate that the settlement of the region has only just begun, with massive irrigation canal projects promising to support a significant population boom.
“Grab your sage-brush, plant your seed and trees and turn on your water and your farm is made.”
This 1891 account captures the exact moment Yakima transitioned from an open desert to an agricultural powerhouse. The 'irrigation miracles' described here laid the foundation for the valley's modern economy, though the region continues to grapple with the same fundamental question: how to manage water scarcity in an arid climate.
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