A Mile-Long Dike Was Too Much for One Farm
A commissioner's private flood-control plan collapsed under the price of a mile-long, 14-foot levee, sending contractors home and pushing the fight to a public diking district and the superior court.
Diking matters are slowly approaching a head. Diking Commissioner A. O. Onesrud has had an engineer at work all week, surveying for a dike to protect the Jones & Onesrud farm. Teams and equipment were assembled to begin work at once upon completion of the survey; but it was found that a dike over a mile long and 14 feet high was required to dike this farm alone, and Mr. Onesrud thought the cost too great. The teams and contractors, Aiger Douglas, were discharged and went out this morning. Mr. Onesrud will now depend upon the public dike of district No. 2, and is confident the matter will pass the superior court in time to build the dam across the Calispel river this fall. —Usk Times.
“Mr. Onesrud will now depend upon the public dike of district No. 2, and is confident the matter will pass the superior court in time to build the dam across the Calispel river this fall.”
In 1909, a diking commissioner discovered that protecting one farm could require a mile-long, 14-foot levee—and that the private cost was enough to send contractors home. The fallback was a public diking district and a court date, the same mix of flood risk, public money, and waiting that rural communities still navigate.
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