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Show ION THE BENCH CAN AL. . ' Control of the Bench canal is now in possession of Ogden City, although there are many outstanding shares in private hands. Be-I Be-I cause of that control, members of the city commission are called on to help supervise the management and pass on the expenditures. On last Thursday the city officials went over the canal with the officers offi-cers of the company and they were escorted by Hyrum Goodale who has been water master for 31 years and Whose father directed the construction of the canal. During the fall of 1S55 tho- canal was started and the digging of the waterway was completed in 1S57. This was Ogden 's first ap-j ap-j propriation of water on a large scale from the.Qgden river. Sufficient Suffi-cient water was diverted to make 'a stream of 8 to 10 second feet, ' and 500 acres of land within the boundaries of the city were covered, i The canal hugs the sand ridge from the north of Ogden canyon on the south side to the top of what is known as the Dugway. There is some heavy excavating which had to be done. by pick and shovel in the early days when scrapers and steam shovels were unknown. Mr. Goodale said that, when the canal was being dug, labor was 100 per cent efficient. Men worked long hours at $1.50 a day, and were paid in stock. Many of them had nothing more for their midday mid-day meal than dry bread and onions. Going over this early construction, one is impressed with the amount of hard work performed by the pioneers of Utah. The foundation foun-dation of this commonwealth was laid by endless perseverance heavy sacrifice and devotion to duty, and we who are the beneficiaries should be thankful that our predecessors were men and women so devoted de-voted to home building as to have built most firmly and enduringly. The men had nothing as good as is worn by the overall brigade of today and the women had never heard of silk stockings. They stinted themselves of even the necessaries of those days of privation, and on thrift paved the way for our present progress and prosperity. prosper-ity. They have gone, but a thoughtful people remember them with an acknowledgement of debt of gratitude. |