A Diamond-Studded Celebration for the Selah Ditch
Foreman Dan McDonald is honored with a costly gift as the ambitious irrigation project reaches the summit, opening vast new tracts for agriculture.
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Present work on the Selah ditch is finished and the canal is completed to the summit. The lands now under water include several sections in township 14. The completion of this extensive work was celebrated Tuesday evening at the Yakima Club, where President John A. Stone of the Selah Valley Ditch Company presented foreman Dan McDonald with a handsome diamond-studded gold watch in recognition of his three years of loyal service. The presentation, led by O.A. Fechter, surprised McDonald, who believed the gathering was merely a social event. Speeches were given by Ex-Mayor James Knox, Lewis Lachmund, and others, as friendships were cemented over wine and cigars.
“Mr. McDonald, who was of the impression that the gathering was simply for a little social entertainment... was taken completely by surprise.”
The transition of arid land into irrigated farmland was the defining engine of Yakima's 19th-century growth. Today, water rights and the maintenance of these aging irrigation systems remain at the center of the region's agricultural economy and political debates.
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