The Great Irrigation Machine
A massive engineering project promises to transform the Yakima Valley from cattle range into a garden of prosperity.
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 construction of the Yakima and Kittitas Irrigation Company's canal, although of magnitude, has not received that attention and notice on the part of the press which its importance merits. This canal is to take its supply of water from the Yakima River a few miles below the city of North Yakima and convey it for purposes of irrigation upon many thousands of acres of very rich land, converting sheep and cattle ranges into highly productive gardens and farms. At the new town of Drummond may be seen a large force of men and teams engaged on the work of this canal, which is 30 feet wide at the bottom and 8 feet deep.
“Here are at least 100,000 acres of practically useless territory being redeemed and converted into a veritable garden by irrigation.”
This reflects the period of rapid 'boosterism' where massive irrigation infrastructure turned arid shrub-steppe into the agricultural engine of the Pacific Northwest. The tension between large-scale engineering and sustainable water usage remains a central political and environmental issue in the Yakima Basin today.
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