Ambitious Irrigation Project Promised for Yakima
Chief Engineer J. D. McIntyre plans a million-dollar canal to redeem 100,000 acres of arid land.
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.
Before leaving for Montana, Chief Engineer J. D. McIntyre told a Herald reporter that after running over the six ditch lines already surveyed, he had abandoned them and decided upon a new line that would cost $200,000 less and water a much larger area of country. The canals as projected by Mr. McIntyre would cost in the neighborhood of a million dollars and would redeem 100,000 acres of arid land. The project will open up an immense body of country directly tributary to North Yakima and make it the metropolis of Central Washington. The main canal will be over a hundred miles in length and extend to the Columbia river.
“The canals as projected by Mr. McIntyre would cost in the neighborhood of a million dollars and would redeem 100,000 acres of arid land.”
Yakima’s transition from arid land to agricultural hub relied entirely on massive, complex irrigation projects. The legacy of these century-old water rights and infrastructure decisions continues to be a central point of civic and economic debate in the valley.
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