The Struggle for Water in the Desert
Construction continues on the N.P. Yakima & Kittitas Irrigation canal, promising a future for new settlers despite earlier fears of a winter shutdown.
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 Herald last week published the statement that work on the big ditch of the N. P. Yakima & Kittitas Irrigation company would be suspended for the winter. The publication was made on the statement of Contractor J. L. Smith, who was preparing to withdraw his force and pay off his men. Messrs Katz & Smith had been unable to get instructions to proceed with the work beyond the seventeen miles of canal then completed, and were making arrangements to close down when the glad tidings were received from headquarters authorizing the continuation of the work through the winter. The company is disposing of much land along the line of the ditch, and sales are made largely to practical farmers who would begin the work of improvement with the opening of spring. Many railroad men have also made purchases, looking upon the investment as a life insurance policy.
“The company is disposing of much land along the line of the ditch, which in itself is the strongest guarantee that there will be no cessation of work.”
The infrastructure battles of the 1890s regarding irrigation rights and speculative land sales mirror the ongoing tension between industrial development and local agricultural sustainability in Yakima County. The promise of water as the 'guarantee' of growth remains a central theme in the region's civic identity.
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