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Show VAST IRRIGATION SCHEME Iron County Project Involving the Expenditure Expendi-ture of 35,000. will Reclaim Immense Tracts That Iron county has a great future before her, with an early increase in population, becomes all the more apparent from day to day. And that this growth and advancement will be based upon the most solid and secure source of material prospenty agriculture makes the prospect all the more encouraging. At the present time we are not confined con-fined to one or two important reclamation projects -we have a number of them, not the least of which is the scheme to utilize the waters of the Little Salt Lake, west of Parowan. Nor is this project, concerning which but little has been said, and nothing published, merely a day dream. Operations have been under way for some months past, and when the site was visited a few days since by a representative representa-tive of The Record, he was surprised sur-prised to find that so much work had been done. In the neighborhood neighbor-hood of $10,000.00 has already been spent since the work was commenced last November, and a cut or canal, that might be mistaken for a portion of the Panama canal, has been excavated. excavat-ed. The promoters and financiers of the proposition are Judge Greenwood of Fillmore. Attorney D. D. Houtz and Stenographer W. L. Cook of Salt Lake City, and J. L. Lowder, the wealthy sheep man of Parowan. Up to the present time no company has been incorporated, and no interest inter-est in the scheme is offered for sale. The gentlemen above named are spending their own money, and propose to demonstrate demon-strate that the underaking is feasible before placing the land and water on the market. They estimate that $25,000 more will be required to complete and commercialize com-mercialize the project, which includes in-cludes the building of a large reservoir dam across the lower end of the Parowan gap, where there is a splendid natural site for a reservoir. The object of this reservoir is mainly to reduce re-duce evaporation, as under present pres-ent conditions the water of the lake frequently covers eight or nine square miles of territory, with the result thatwhen the water is most needed for irrigation, irriga-tion, the lake is dry." It is believed be-lieved that by the construction of the proposed reservoir, which will be about 90 feet deep at the dam, about one and one-fourth miles long by three-fourths of a mile wide, this evaporation can be greatly diminished. The reservoir res-ervoir will be about the size of the well-known Enterprise reservoir, reser-voir, and is but little, if any, in. ferior to that project in point of natural advantages, and in some respectsparticularly in accessibilityis accessi-bilityis far superioy. The reservoir res-ervoir will cover more than 500 acres of ground, the site for which hasTreen applied for, and (Continued on last) pace.) VAST IRRIGATION SCHEME '" ",iUOimmifiairoTnnitpnj?orr" : obtained. Tho promoters havo filed on :and aro purchasing from the State a total of 4,000 acres of good land in tho Rush Lnko valley, val-ley, where tho now town will bo located.- It is estimated, however, howev-er, that there will bo water for considerably moro land than this, and this will bo provided, oither by a small Carey grant, or by requesting re-questing congenial persons to en-tor en-tor tho land, and.purchaso water f ronftho company. Work was temporarily abandoned aban-doned about Juno 15, on account of a scarcity of horse feed, and tho warm weather, and will bo resumed next September. The work will include tho dredging of tho Parowan lake so that it may bo completoly drained, nnd tho drawing off of tho salt and mineral deposits while held in solution in tho water, Tho fact that so promising a project has been allowed to remain re-main unimproved for so long a time is probably due to tho fact that tho waters of the Parowan lake woro'rogarded as worthless for irrigating purposes. But Mr. Houtz and associates discovered discov-ered that thoro was a strong pressure of fresh water from beneaththat be-neaththat good water could be obtained on tho shores and in the bottom of tho lake within two to four feet of tho surface, and tho fact that tho lake has had no outlet out-let except by evaporation for so many centuries is responsible for tho brackish condition of tho water, wa-ter, which they believe will entirely en-tirely disappear when the lake has been drained a time or two. It is expected that the reservoir reser-voir and canals will bo completed beforo tho end of another year, and that tho project will be a commercial reality.. . j |