Forging the Cowichee and Wide Hollow District
Yakima County officials formally organize a new irrigation district, reshaping the landscape and local water rights for the coming century.
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.
On this 4th day of August, 1890, the canvass of the votes at the election held on July 28, 1890, for the establishment of an irrigation district resulted in 36 votes in favor and 7 against. The county commissioners ordered that the territory described—commencing on Naches river, at the mouth of the Tieton, and encompassing extensive tracts of land—be organized as the 'Cowichee and Wide Hollow Irrigating District.' The board declared the elected officers for the district: Assessor R. S. Morgan, Collector George Wilson, Treasurer B. L. Masters, and Directors J. C. Read, D. W. Stair, H. D. Winchester, John Smith, and John O’Neal.
“And all the territory included therein be and the same is hereby duly organised as an irrigation district.”
This administrative proceeding was the foundational moment for the agricultural transformation of the Yakima Valley. The legal fight over irrigation rights and water infrastructure remains the dominant political and environmental narrative in the region today.
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