Major Irrigation Expansion Coming to Benton County
Construction crews to begin enlarging the Sunnyside Canal to bolster agriculture in the region.
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.
Two 250-men camps are being prepared for the large crew of men who will begin work in a short time on the enlarging of the canal below Grandview from the fiftieth to the sixtieth mile. This work will be done as the first step in the Benton extension of the Sunnyside canal. The balance of the work will be done by contract. Watermaster Christensen states that it will be necessary to double the size of the canal for ten miles and that nearly two-thirds of the work will be in rock so that a large crew of men will be needed. The size of the crew has not been determined, but preparations are being made to take care of upwards of 500 men. It is probable that 100 drill crews will be necessary. With all this work going on, the coming season will be a good one for the valley. Work on the canal will be begun as soon as possible. This work is entirely separate from the pumping plant project. The fiftieth mile is two miles east of Grandview.
“It will be necessary to double the size of the canal for ten miles and that nearly two-thirds of the work will be in rock.”
The Sunnyside Canal remains a critical piece of infrastructure for Washington's agricultural identity. These 1914 labor camps represent the immense manual effort required to transform the desert into the orchard-heavy landscape visible in the Tri-Cities today.
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