The Treble-Decker Trestle That Would Bring Water to Selah
John A. Stone reports the main trestle of the Selah ditch is framed—260 feet long and 56 feet high—with water promised by the end of October and a watermelon-cutting to mark the finish.
The work on the big Selah ditch is progressing rapidly. John A. Stone came in from there Wednesday and reports that the main trestle is already framed. It is a huge structure 260 feet long by 56 feet high, built of the pattern known as a “treble decker.” Mr. Stone says he is bound to get water in the ditch by the last of October, if not by the 20th, and that the finish of the big undertaking will be celebrated by the cutting of a watermelon and other ceremonies.
“The finish of the big undertaking will be celebrated by the cutting of a watermelon and other ceremonies.”
Irrigation ditches like Selah’s turned sagebrush into orchards and hop yards, making water the region’s real estate engine. The trestle is gone, but the fight over who gets water—and what it makes possible—still shapes Yakima County.
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