Taming the High Lakes for Irrigation
Northern Pacific begins damming alpine reservoirs to feed the burgeoning Yakima Valley farms.
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.
Mr. James Stuart left Monday for Easton with a number of men and a carload of tools and supplies, to take charge of the Northern Pacific, Yakima & Kittitas Irrigation Co.’s work at Lakes Katches and Kitchclas. Houses are to be built and the lakes dammed to be used as supply reservoirs. This work will be prosecuted until the winter weather interferes. When questioned as to when active work of construction would commence in Yakima, Mr. Walter Granger replied, 'as soon as the surveys are completed.' He further said that the Yakima ditches would be the first ones built.
“Houses are to be built and the lakes dammed to be used as supply reservoirs.”
The struggle for water rights and the engineering of the Yakima Valley's irrigation systems defined the region's economy for a century. Today, these same reservoirs remain central to the ongoing, complex arguments over water allocation in the Columbia Basin.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.