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Show THIS IMMENSE !RRIGAT!ON PROJECT MEANS MUCH TO SALT LAKE VALLEY Special to The Tribune. KAVSVILLE. .Inly 9. Three million, seven hundred and "fifty thousand dollars dol-lars is the estimate made on (he cost of one of tho greatest irrigation projects pro-jects ever attempted in lTtnn. which is about to be launched by Davis. Weber. Morgan and Summit county mcu. Tho promoters have for eight, years been -working on the big proposition and it seems thoy arc now about to scp the fruition of their dreams of reclaiming an extensive arid region and making it productive. The main part of the tract that it is designed to irrigate is in Davis and Weber counties, extending from Beck's 1 1 or Springs, four miles north of Salt Lake City, to the Ogden Jlol Springs, fifteen miles northwest of Oguen. Those who are familiar with the topogrn'phy of the two counties lying north of Salt Lake will know that all along the foothills throughout the fifty miles that separates the two hot springs, there extends a tract of arid, or semi-arid semi-arid lands, with only here and there spots whore the mountain streams have been turned out of their deep channels as they, emerge from the c.auyons and made to water comparatively small areas of tho uplands. For the most part the streams from the precipitous mountains moun-tains arc too small io allow of their being be-ing used on these dry benches, and such as to furnish a fair volume of water in the early part of the season, fall short when irrigation is most needed need-ed in the production of the more valuable valu-able crops, such as tomatoes, fruits and sugar beets. This condition as to the higher lands is true llnoughout Davis county, with the exception of Gcnter-villo Gcnter-villo and part of Fannington, where water is more plentiful. V it A Lying north and east of Kavsville and' Layton there is a large tract of choice land for which there is not now, and never has been, any irrigating water. Yet this land is perhaps as rich and productive and valuable as any in the slate, if only water can be had for it. The same is true to the bench lands south of Ogden, extending as far as the Weber river. In all, there are approximately .")O,000 acres of arid and semi-arid lands in the two counties, every acre of which can be .brought, under un-der the canal system that seems now in a fair way to" be constructed. Something Some-thing like eight years ago leading men of Davis. Weber" Morgan and Summit counties, all of whom were directly or indirectly interested in the waters of the Weber river, met for the purpose of organizing to project the rights of water claimants on the stream. Water was becoming more valuable and the alleged al-leged encroachments of canal companies on (he rights of older users of the water threatened to precipitate eudless litigation liti-gation unless some action was taken. The outcome of the meeting called to consider the matter was the formation of the Weber "Reservoir. Power and Irrigation Ir-rigation company, which was later incorporated in-corporated for the purpose of storing the Hood waters of tho Weber at one or more suitable places, and thus furnishing fur-nishing an abundant supply for all of he lands below the reservoirs. Splendid Splen-did sites were secured, the .best and largest being between Echo and Coalville Coal-ville in Summit county. In the one location there is said to be a chance tu store 50.000 acre feet of water, enough to irrigate oO,00(j acres of land. Tins company was composed entirely of local men, none of thorn capitalists, ami the stuck was for the most part .sub scribed in small blocks by the farmers Vif Mm fniir i-iniiil ipv TMif i'nmii!inv proceeded to secure reservoir sites, make surveys and get, estimates, and after expending about $2o,000 in this work it. was seen Hint the project, was entirely en-tirely too great, to bo undertaken with only local capital. The estimates van well up into tho millions of dollars for the const ruction of the works, and with these figures before them the company's olficers saw the futility of proceeding further along that line, and commenced to negotiate for outside financial help. In this work, T. h. Allen of Coalville has been the leading spirit, and he has for more than live years devoted practically prac-tically all of his lini" to the difficult and 'delicsi to task of getting eastern capitalists cap-italists interested. In his labors he has been ably assisted by John 0. M. Barnes. President Joseph 'U, ("5 rant. He ber .J. Sheffield of "Davis count' and by the oilier officers of the company. The story of the long si niggle, with its periods of rosy hope and baffling discouragements, in which the capital to finance the project seemed one day to be assured and I he next to have gone beyond reach, need not bo told here. Min-h time and effort and mnnoy has been devoted to securing land op-lions, op-lions, making investigations, surveys and estimates, and with it all up lo'a few weeks ago I he end seemed no nearer Ih. in it was live years ago. Hut now, thanks to the irrigation law passed by I he last legislature, there seems lo .be un a1(;ii'1o in tho n'.'i v uC n frtim ill i 2I1 . ing all that has been sought bv the promoters of the gigantic scheme. Water ,in abundance is assured, the feasibility of getting it onto tho land where needed has bron demonstrated, and under the provisions of the state enact incut mentioned men-tioned the people are enabled to form an irrigation district, to embrace all of the lands that need water, mid to issue bonds and dispose of them for the purpose pur-pose of constructing tho system of resorvoirs and canals. This stale law, by the way, has been drawn carefully, and contains tho .best provisions of siinilar laws in other states where irrigation is practiced. Competent attorneys and engineers aro authority for the statement that it is the nearest approach to a perfect irrigation irri-gation law thai, is lo be found on any statute book. .It. safeguards the rights of the individual landowner, and at. (he same time contains provisions that make safe an investment of capital in the project. Within tho past three weeks eastern capitalists have been in ULah making careful investigation of the whole matter, mat-ter, and meetings have been held daily in Salt. Lako or Ogden, in which the officers of the Weber Reservoir, Power and irrigation company and the eastern men have taken part. After the Ogden Og-den meeting was held a few days ago. announc'enieut was made officially that the capitalists have definitely agreed to finance- the proposition and that funds will be available as soon as the preliminary prelim-inary steps can bo taken under the law to form the irrigation district. It was furthermore officially announced that no timo will be lost, in getting the land owners in lino to form the irrigation district. The, first step provided for by the statute is the filing of a petition with the county commissioners of the couny in which the greater amount of laud' lo be benefited is located, which 1 in this case will bo with the Davis county commissioners, asking them to order an election for the voting of bonds and the election of three directors who are to have charge of the affairs of the district If two-thirds vote favorably, the district is formed, the bonds are voted and the directors are elected, and thereafter the directors have general charge of the expenditure of the district dis-trict funds. Jn conducting the affairs of the district, three divisions of the lands, as nearly equal as practicable, are made, and "one director has immediate imme-diate charge of each district." It is estimated that the carrying out of the great undertaking will require an expenditure of $3,750,000, which is at the ralo of $12o an acre for the 30,-000 30,-000 acres of arid lauds that it is proposed pro-posed to embrace, Tn this the 15,000 to i?0,000 acres of semi-arid lands are not included, though a provision -will bo made for embracing such insufficiently watered tracts by allowing the owners of such lands to" petition into the district dis-trict after it is formed. The stipulation stipula-tion has been made that the lands shall not .be bonded for a sum greater than $125 per acre. As has been sa.id, the entire $."..750,000 issue of bonds, which will, if voted, bear 6 per cent interest, will be taken at par by the eastern capitalists, whoso representatives are now in Utah. They pre said to be Chicago Chi-cago people, but tlicir identity has not been made known. The bonds will run for twenty years. No interest will be charged during the first two years, or until the water is turnod into the canal, after which time, and during the ten years following, the landowners are required re-quired to pnv only the interest annually. an-nually. Tn the eleventh year not less than 5 per cent of the principal will be called for; in the twelfth vear, 0 per cent and so on in increasing ratio until at. tliccnd of the twenty year period, pe-riod, the' principal will all be paid and the canal system will be the property of tho landowners. V It will require 'three or four months to effect the organization of the district on the lines provided by the statute, but it is hoped that the coining autumn will see tho election held, and in the event that the people decide to proceed, pro-ceed, the promoters and the capitalists who arc to back tho project promise water for the iinmcnso tract of land by the car 1911. It should bo said Ihnl while the officers of tho Weber Reservoir, Power and Irrigation company com-pany are fathering the proposition, they do hot hope to realize a dollar of profit, from the transaction. They hohl the reservoir site, an immensely valuable property, and they have done a vast amount of work whipping tho project into shape, but. the officers who were seen recently declared that thoy arc ready to turn over all their holdings, including in-cluding sites, maps, estimates, etc., to the district as soon as it. is formed, and all they expert is to havo the new organization or-ganization reimburse their stockholders tor the amounts actually paid out. which will approximate ?25,000. with probably some other small expense still to be incurred. The personnel of the board of directors of the concern is sufficient suf-ficient evidence of good failh, Tho officers of-ficers are: AV. II. Rich of Morgan, president and director; G. Christensen of Ogden, vice president, and director; Thomas b. Allen of Coalville, secretary, treasurer and director; Johu G M. Barnes of Kavsville, director; .lames Uroen of Hooper, director; lleber J. Sheffield of Kaysville, director; Xophi Sargent of lloytsville. director; Joseph 11. Grant of Wood's Cross, director, t As to the details of construction of the canal system, it. has been given out that the water will b stored above Kcliu. and as needed, will be conveyed into the river channel to a point above Petorson, Morgan county, where a dam will be built aud from which point two canals, ono on tho south side of the river lo water Davis county lands, and one on the uorth side to irrigate Webor county farms, will bo constructed. Thcy will follow I he line of the Union Pacific Pa-cific track through Weber caii3on into Stilt Lake valley. At the mouth of the-canyon tho canal will be .'S-10 feet above the river bod, (his elevation being be-ing sufficient to coyer practically all tillable lands in Davis ami Weber counties. coun-ties. In all, something like fifty miles of main canal will be required, "not including in-cluding branch canals and laterals that will be needed for distribution. The additional cost of laterals will be borne by the district, and all landowners will got the water at the snmo figure, whether near the canal or in a more remoto location, thus equalizing the burden. bur-den. Those -who arc working for tho project pro-ject are enthusiastic over tho prospects. Thoj' point out Unit water will increase the value of all tho land it touches many fold, and although the cost is heavy, the advantage to the individual landowners, lo the county and to the state will full-, compensate for the outlay. out-lay. II will open a new horticultural and farming district that probably has no equal in Utah. Tn a few days a circular letter will bo issied informing property owners of the proposed organization of an irrigation irri-gation district, and assurance is given that no delay will occur, so far as those behind the scheme aro concerned, in placing the whole matter up to the people. peo-ple. Already there is an enthusiastic sentiment in this part of Davis count v, and it is quite generally believed thfit the project will go through as planned. |