The Great Reclamation: Opening the Interior
How a 1877 federal law sought to transform the 'Great American Desert' of the Yakima plains into a productive landscape.
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.
In the winter of 1874-75, a member of Congress introduced a bill granting one section of land—640 acres—to any citizen who reclaimed it by irrigation. Originally known as the Lassen County Desert Land Bill, it has since been amended to cover arid lands in California, Oregon, Nevada, Washington, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Dakota, New Mexico, and Arizona. The bill has passed the House and Senate. Amendments ensure that no person can acquire more than one section, that water rights remain for public use in irrigation and mining, and that lands are surveyed before reclamation. The law requires payment of 25 cents per acre at filing and $1 per acre upon receiving a patent. This bill will encourage the settlement of the 'Great American Desert' and quadruple the grants available to settlers. The act includes the prairies of the Yakima plains, which require artificial water application. Irrigation here is not an insurmountable difficulty, as every mountain arroyo provides living water that can be distributed at little cost, ensuring the building of prosperous states between the Rocky and Cascade Ranges.
“The vast amount of these lands whose reclamation is thus rendered practicable will ensure the rapid building up of rich and prosperous States in the interior between the Rocky and Cascade Ranges.”
This 1877 legislative push for desert reclamation captures the dawn of large-scale water diversion in the Pacific Northwest. Today, this same infrastructure—the Yakima Project—remains at the heart of intense modern debates over water rights, agricultural sustainability, and climate resilience in the state.
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