The Push for Irrigation in the Yakima Valley
North Yakima residents lobby the state for a comprehensive irrigation system, mirroring successful agricultural transformations in California.
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 people of North Yakima judge rightly that the interest of their rich but arid valley is involved in the enactment of some legislation by the state of Washington for the encouragement of irrigation. They are strongly in favor of the California law, and at a public meeting held on Saturday, passed strong resolutions urging its adoption by Washington. This law has worked admirably in California, transforming the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys into fertile farming lands. The Yakima valley has an abundant flow of water from the mountains, and with a proper system of irrigation, can be made the most productive and habitable territory in the state.
“The Yakima, like the other rivers, has an abundant flow of water from a head high in the mountains and needs only water to make it surely and continuously fertile.”
The quest for water rights and infrastructure to sustain the Yakima Valley's agricultural output remains the central civic argument of the region. This 1890 meeting marks the early efforts to secure the resource base that defines the valley's economy to this day.
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