From rangeland and lake beds to farmland

By LEE JUILLERAT

H&N Regional Editor

February 15, 2008

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.

Irrigation begins in the Basin

   Eric A. Stene wrote about the Klamath Project for The Bureau of Reclamation’s History Program and “A River Never the Same: A History of Water in the Klamath Basin ,” the 1999 Shaw Historical Library Journal. 

   In his detailed histories, Stene says irrigation was introduced to the Klamath Basin in 1882 when several Linkville farmers incorporated the Linkville Water Ditch Company. The Van Brimmer Brothers also started a small ditch to irrigate 4,000 acres near the Oregon-California border on Lost River . 

   Four years later, J. Frank Adams and neighbors completed a six-mile canal from Lost River to Adam’s Point. The canal was lengthened to 22 miles in 1904.

   Another early canal was excavated on the west side of the Link River by Charles and Rufus Moore in 1877 to furnish power for a sawmill and transport logs from Upper Klamath Lake to the mill. The brothers built another canal, beginning in the same location, to power a flour mill and supply irrigation water for lots and orchards in west Klamath Falls. 

   For more about the early history, see Reclamation’s Web site at www.usbr.gov/dataweb/html/ klamath.html or read “A River Never the Same,” the 1999 Shaw Historical Library Journal.

Dams, canals and water

   The Klamath Project has seven dams. 

   Three storage dams: Clear Lake, Gerber and Link River are used to store water that might otherwise go downstream. Four are diversion dams: Lost River, Anderson-Rose and Malone, all on Lost River, and Miller on Miller Creek. Diversion dams control or route water, such as through irrigation canals, without storing water for a later release. 

   The Project supplies irrigation water for about 220,000 acres on about 1,500 farms. Of those irrigable acres, 182,000 acres were actually irrigated in 2003, with 156,000 acres relying on water from Upper Klamath Lake and the Klamath River. The remaining acreage receives water from east side sources, such as Clear Lake. Farms on the project grow a wide variety of crops, including alfalfa hay, barley, other hay, oats, potatoes, mint and wheat. The Project further supports a large livestock business, including cattle and lesser volumes of sheep and hogs. 

   The Project has more than 717 miles of canals, laterals and diversion channels that move irrigation water from Upper Klamath Lake, the Klamath River, Clear Lake, Lost River and Tule Lake. 

   There are two tunnels, the A Canal, which has an underground section through Klamath Falls, and the Tule Lake Tunnel. In addition, there are almost 728 miles of drainage canals.

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