Excavating the A Canal at Hot Springs in 1907.
Tule Lake, looking toward Bloody Point, before it was
drained and reclaimed for the Klamath River project in
1905.
Bloody Point as farmland in 1998.
It was 1906 when construction began on
the Klamath Reclamation Project, a series of dams and
canals designed to provide water to farmers and drain
water from reclaimed lakebeds.
The Project was launched by the U.S.
Bureau of Reclamation to transform rangeland to farmland.
Work began with the building of the A Canal, with the
first water available May 22, 1907.
Other structures followed: the Clear Lake
Dam in 1910; the Lost River Diversion Dam and many
distribution structures in 1912; the Anderson-Rose
Diversion Dam (originally named the Lower Lost River
Diversion Dam) in 1913; and the Malone Diversion Dam on
Lost River in 1923.
Of the 225,000 acres that are now on the
Project, 80,000 acres were from Lower Klamath Lake, then a
shallow marsh that straddled the Oregon-California border.
Tule Lake also was reduced in size by diverting water from
the Lost River.
Studied in 1903
Eric Stene, who wrote histories of the
Klamath Project for Reclamation in 1994 and the Shaw
Historical Library Journal in 1999 (much of the
information in this story is from those writings) said the
Klamath region was studied as a possible reclamation
project in October 1903. A dam was recommended at the
lower end of Upper Klamath Lake to retain enough water to
irrigate 200,000 acres.
Legal conflicts, Stene writes, are
nothing new. Approval for the initial work depended on
adjudication of all vested and conflicting water rights;
surrender of rights on Lower Klamath and Tule lakes;
cessation of rights and title to the federal government by
Oregon and California for Lower Klamath and Tule lakes;
and congressional approval to destroy navigability of the
two lakes.
Residents of Klamath Falls, Merrill,
Bonanza and other Basin communities campaigned for the
Project in late 1904 and 1905. Farmers, who unanimously
supported the Project, organized the Klamath Water Users’
Association in March 1905. That year, the Oregon and
California legislatures and U.S. Congress passed all
necessary legislation.
Construction begins
Construction started in 1906. Heavy
snowfall and rains impaired work by horse teams on the
excavation and caused delays in receiving equipment and
supplies.
The Klamath Project was significant
because it attracted people of varying national origins.
As an example, three Russian and three Swiss families
moved onto project lands, according to a 1913 report. More
significantly, 175 people filed for 42 tracts of land in a
1917 public drawing.
Surrounding communities, especially
Klamath Falls and rural towns, grew because of the
availability of water for irrigation.
Construction of the Malone Dam, for
example, allowed the irrigation of 6,040 acres of the
Langell Valley Division’s west side, and 4,532 acres near
Bonanza. The Horsefly and Langell Valley irrigation
districts were formed by 1925 and the Sunnyside Irrigation
District in 1926, when the Malin and Shasta View Pumping
Districts also were created, and 8,000 acres of land
received water from the enlargement of the Adams Canal.
Reclamation granted homesteads to World
War I veterans between November 1922 and January 1923.
During World War II, management was
interrupted because of the creation of a Japanese American
relocation/detention camp near Newell.
Reclamation regained control of
relocation center lands, including Tulelake, in 1946 and,
as it had done after World War I, offered homesteads to
World War II veterans. Those selected also received
surplus farm equipment and abandoned barracks buildings
from the Newell camp.
“Events on the Klamath Project mirrored
events in the western United States,” Stene writes in his
Reclamation history. “The agreement between Reclamation
and California-Oregon Power, leading to construction of
the Link River Dam, created an unusual circumstance in
reclamation projects. A power company building and
operating a dam on a project did not often occur.
“Most important,” Stene notes in his 1994
report, anticipating events still relevant in 2008, “the
Klamath Project participated in the ongoing quest for
water, indigenous to the American West, and answered the
increasing demand for irrigation. Facilities on the
Klamath Project continue to provide a large population
with a variety of services.”
< A woman harvests potatoes in the Basin
in 1941.
