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Show 1 4 LAND RECLAMA TION FUND 1 I I COMMISSION AND ITS WORK I I . . rJ7-K-HlW 1 i B JjyTaTForemus. et.ts Lerlriarure at Its firth regu- -In P- w rov,51n for fcSton to secure to the State of Brie eflts of the ttrm lan1 reL" asr '- ireriTally known as th na- commiwlon- consisting of five liters, was appointed by the Govex-aaawir'1 Govex-aaawir'1 confirmed by th Benato. to (or a term of two years or until wccewors are appointed and B'mnilaaionerfl o appointed we B jam E White of Piute county, K Harden Bemdon of Uintah county. E r. R. Anderfon of Panpete county, KTj(eph A. Weet of Weber county Mr A F" Doremu? of Salt Lake KLr, tt l11 be,n named as the Jrji the coram! ssior.ers serve wlth-mpenea.tlon, wlth-mpenea.tlon, bur their necessary BBBnrrits expenses ar paid out of the Mr.; impropriated to defray the expense BBSfcirrInK out the purpose, of tho lr.iv. Vfc commission took up Its work eciiateiv after having been appnint-fclu appnint-fclu fi'rit act was to telegraph Prof, N-?". chief engineer of the HV States reclamation service, of Its ord of Its desire to art co-or-Kt.v with him, for the purpose of ln-iSBHir&'Irifr ln-iSBHir&'Irifr the work In this fato, rn d Kg Hi at ten Ion to Utah Ink'1 as af-K-p an excellent opportunity for a Hjte eonralwion also filed Its credn-Kk credn-Kk with the Honorable Secretary of fclcterktr and requested official re, - taqneDtly the commission was In- Kwa (hAt It had been officially rerog- nlzed by tho Secretary, and considerable correspondence ensued which culminated culminat-ed In the authorization, by tho department, depart-ment, of Investigations to determine the best means for Improving Utah lake a a reservoir, and for utilizing th Increased In-creased water supply that might be made available. Legal Questions. Almost at the oiitset. legal quentlon arose which the commissi. in was not abln to meet without the aid of compe-tent compe-tent counsel, and the services of lion. F. S. Richards were secured. Mr. Rlch-urds's Rlch-urds's special knowledge of tho water rights of Utah lake and his general knowledge of Irrigation law. made him eminently able to advise regarding the questions presented Mik h time and labor was expended In harmonising apparent conflicts between tho nation U tnd State laws relating to the work and in eliminating the many obstacles and objections that were interposed. in-terposed. An attempt was next ma do to get tho land owners under the lake, into somo form of organization that would enable them to deal with the Government In relation to the water supply Many difficulties arose to delay ninsiimmtt-tlon ninsiimmtt-tlon of this effort, ami it was feared the Government would Withdraw Its men from the field and from the State In the meantime the commission had written to the County Clerks of every count In the State, asking for information informa-tion as to the needs and possibilities of the water supply in their respective, counties. Th object being to get the I broadest possible Information. In order to enable a comprehensive study of the whole situation, with a view of embra -Ing the entire State In a Single projei I or several parts In separate projects, as the facts mlpht suggest; The response was not general nor the information encouraging but the commission com-mission was determined to llnd some pro Ject that would be characteristic of the 1 ""1 i -i Header at Worfe on Arid Farm. State and worthy of Governmeint action. In case the opportunity at Utah lake should bo allowed to lapse. I ii ill.', tic- si h -n known (is the Bear lake-Duchesne project was evolved) maps to Illustrate it were maile and the idan was taken to Washington nn'l formally presented to the Honorable Honor-able Secretary Of the Interior personally person-ally The maps were accompanied by a brief of the entire situation and a request re-quest that tho work of Investigation, to determine the practicability of tho project pro-ject be authorized. Advantage of the Commission. Here the great advantage of a State commission was made manifest Among all the petitioners for similar examinations, examin-ations, none were representatives of a sovereign State. T't.ihs commission had prevtouslv presented Its credentials and received ofn. i d recognition. The commission's represervta.tlve were received by the Secretary personally. The matter presented pre-sented m'.iji given prompt consideration. The maps and briefs were presented end explained to Secretary Hitchcock on the n7th 'lay nf January, On the 17th of March following, an order, for th necessary Investigation to be made, was approved and the local reclamation service ser-vice ofllcers wire soon afterward Instructed In-structed to proceed with the ",tk The work of Investigation began as early last spring an the weather would permit and has been prosecuted with Niter ever since, u is still In progress and will not be fully completed before another year. It has already been ascertained that It will hr practicable to make available about 1,250,000-ai re feel of water that Ie not now appropriated but flows to waste from the s-i-er;i vmi -. r yo f:it fxutn- lned, nnd which can be added to the ent supply In the district embraced by this i, 1 1 .i t projei I The commission estimates the total nre.-t of land In the district to be benefited bene-fited nt 1.000.000 acres, and that one-third' one-third' of this is nlready sufficiently irrigated, irri-gated, leaving about C60,000 acres for Which there Is no present water supply. Further Investigations will no doubt develop the practicability of still creator creat-or augmentation, and the commission Is confident that the work now In progress pro-gress will demonstrate that an ample water supply can be provided for i-ery acre of worthy land In the district described. de-scribed. Organizing tho Work. In anticipation of this, and In response re-sponse to the expressed desire of the United States reclamation service officers, offi-cers, the commission has undertaken the work of organizing all the land owners Into a corporation to be known asi the Utah and Idaho Water Users' association A general committee, consisting con-sisting of nn- member from each county coun-ty Included in the territory to be bene- -H&Kf9404Q4&a flted, was recently appointed, which met and approved articles of Incorporation Incorpo-ration for the proposed association. These articles have been distributed throughout the district, for the Information Infor-mation of the people Interested, and In every neighborhood a responsible person per-son lias been designated to receive subscriptions. Altogether about Sev- enty-nve of these agencies have been established, and In several sub-dls-trlcts the work of subscription has been completed and the lista returned td the office of t lie commission The formation of this association Is made necessary from the fact that the land to be benefited Is practically all In prlate ownership, and the water supply. sup-ply. If provided at all, must be by the request and at the expense of the land owners If the owners of this land are not desirous to have It supplied with a ater, the Government will surely not Insist upon providing the water. In fat I i' was onlv upon the most earnest solicitation of the commission that the Investigations already made were authorized au-thorized The only assurance that the Government has of the deolre for a water wa-ter supply for this lard Is the official declaration of the commission to that effect, and It havlnsr been demonstrated by the Investigations niado that water fur this purpose is available, the Government Gov-ernment canned consistently proceed, beyond the -work of completing these Investigations, before the land owners signify In some substantial manner, what their desires in the matter actually ac-tually are. nn'l this opportunity has been afforded them In the presentation of the described articles of association for their signatures The Next Steps. If the number of subscribers shall be suflVlent to Justify the reclamation r I. e officers In going forward with the work, the next proceedings will be t.i ascertain what the COSt per acre will be for providing the water, and If this shall he satisfactory to tho land owners, own-ers, the work of construction will bej (lvfl next in order. But If the number ofi jj subscribers Bhall not be sufficient to' warrant the Government to proceed; and ascertain the cost, nothing further will be done, and th field forces now! 1 In Utah will be transferred to some1 other locality. When It became apparent that thei details of the work of the Government! could not be satisfactorily conducted) from the Washington office, and that aj branch office would probably be es- jj! tabllshed nearer the Seld of operations, the commission Immediately proceeded! j to acquaint those In charge of the mat-j ter of the advantages which the State! of Utah offered for the location of suchj an office, and it was not long after that! Salt Lak City was selected, and thoj office Is now permanently established! here. I Surely the people of t tah hav every' reason to be satisfied with the law thatl has developed these possibilities and ac-l tualltles In the Short space of two years, and It Is sincerely to be hoped that there will be sufficient Interest manifest by the land owners to Induce a contln- U am e as well as a culmination of thel great work so satlsf actorlly begun. The commission contemplates tho extension ex-tension of Its work until every' possible portion of the State shall have been in-i eluded In some similar project for th purpose of similar Investigation. A most desirable fraternnllty exists between the reclamation service officers' and the commission and the continuance continu-ance of their co-ordinate action needs' only to be snjpplement.-d by the co-operation of the people to Insure results v. he it will be of Inestimable benefit to the Interested land owners and of gen-era! gen-era! advantage to the entire State. There should be no halting In the progressive movement so well started, and which If permitted to proceed wilS contribute so largely to the growth and glorification of a great State. |
