Report on the lands of the arid region of the United States, with a more detailed account of the lands of UtahPowell, John Wesley
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Report on the lands of the arid region of the United States, with a more detailed account of the lands of Utah
Powell, John Wesley
Irrigation -- Utah; Irrigation -- West (U.S.); Public lands -- United States; Rain and rainfall -- West (U.S.)
The volume of the Provo is sufficient to water about 100 square miles.
If it be permitted to serve 28 miles in Kamas Prairie and 40 miles in
Provo Valley and its adjuncts, there will remain for Utah Valley the
quota for 32 miles. The minor streams of the valley, American Fork,
Spanish Fork, Hobble Creek, Payson Creek, etc., will irrigate 120
miles, making a total of 152 square miles supplied with water. The
total land of the valley which might be irrigated if the water were
sufficient amounts to no less than 225 miles.
Thus it appears that if all available lands on the upper Provo are
reclaimed, one-third of Utah Valley must go unwatered, while if none of
them are irrigated, nearly the whole of the valley will be supplied. A
middle course would appear most wise, and will undoubtedly be followed.
A gradual extension of the canals, as the demands and means of the
communities dictate and permit, will bring lands successively into
use in the order of their value and convenience, and when the limit
is reached and title has been acquired to all the water, the most
available lands in each of the three valleys traversed by the Provo
will have been reclaimed. The residents of Kamas Prairie will probably
have increased their meadows so as to furnish winter hay for herds
sufficient to stock the summer pastures of the vicinity; Provo Valley,
having a less favorable climate than Utah Valley, will have irrigated
only its choicest soils; and the major part of the river will belong
to Utah Valley. The apportionment may be roughly estimated as--Kamas
Prairie, 10 miles; Provo Valley and Waldsburg, 20 miles, and Utah
Valley, 70 miles.
Below Utah Lake there is little inequality of volume dependent on
season. The lake is a natural reservoir 127 square miles in extent,
and so far equalizes the outflow through the Jordan that the volume of
that stream is less affected by the mean level of the lake than by the
influence of northerly and southerly winds. With suitable head works
its volume can be completely controlled, and, if desirable, the entire
discharge of the lake can be concentrated in the season of irrigation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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