A Sawmill, a Ditch and a Vision of Orchard Land at Marshall Lake
Col. X. E. Linsley brings machinery to Newport and starts the first irrigation project of its kind in the district.
Col. X. E. Linsley, of Spokane, is about to erect a sawmill at Marshall Lake and the machinery for same arrived at Newport Wednesday over the G. N. Harry Saddler has the contract for getting same to the lake from Conquest Landing. The mill will have a capacity of about 15,000 feet daily.
Mr. Linsley is also going ahead with his irrigation project and will place under water a considerable tract of land which he owns in that vicinity, getting the water from the lake. This land will be set out into orchards and placed on the market. A force of men are now at work digging for the ditches and more will be placed on the job soon. Some very fine land will be brought into the market by this project which is the first of its kind in this section.
“Some very fine land will be brought into the market by this project which is the first of its kind in this section.”
Linsley’s sawmill-and-irrigation scheme bundled timber, water rights and real-estate promotion into one venture—the growth machine in miniature. Marshall Lake remains rural, but the impulse to reengineer water in order to sell land is still recognizably Western.
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