Tumalo Irrigation Project facts for kids

The Tumalo Irrigation Project was a big plan to bring water to farms near Tumalo Creek in Oregon a long time ago, in the late 1800s. It was started by a private company, not the government. The main goal was to help farmers grow crops by giving them a steady supply of water.

The Tumalo Irrigation Project: A Water Story

The Tumalo Irrigation Project was a large effort to build canals and ditches to carry water from Tumalo Creek to dry farmland in Oregon. This project was run by a private company called the Three Sisters Irrigation Company. They hoped to make the land fertile and help many farms grow.

How the Project Started

The project began under a special law called the Carey Act. This law allowed states to get dry federal land if they promised to irrigate it and sell it to settlers. The idea was to turn empty land into productive farms. The Three Sisters Irrigation Company and other companies that followed them were in charge of making this happen for the Tumalo area.

Problems and Challenges

Even though the project sounded like a great idea, it ran into big problems. Some of the people who invested money in the company were more interested in buying and selling land for profit (this is called land speculation) than in actually building the irrigation system. This meant that the important work of digging canals and bringing water to the farms didn't happen as quickly or as well as it should have.

The State Steps In

Because of these problems, the project wasn't working out. In 1912, when Oswald West was the Governor of Oregon, the state decided to take over the project. The government wanted to make sure the irrigation work was completed properly. However, even with the state in charge, the project faced too many difficulties. By 1913, all the work stopped, and the construction camp was abandoned. The dream of bringing water to all those farms through this project did not come true.