The Wenatchee Daily World

KLICKITAT REPORTED EFFORTS OF PROMOTERS TO LAUNCH GREAT EST IRRIGATION SYSTEM IN NORTHWEST SUCCESSFUL.

Husum, Wash., Dec. 10.—The big Klickitat river canal proposition, which is considered one of the largest irrigation projects ever launched in the northwest, has reached a stage when actual construction is close at hand. The project, which covers an area of 600,000 acres located in the Horse Heaven country in the counties of Klickitat and Benton, has been under consideration for five years. Eastern capital has been interested, and now is reported to be available to back the enterprise.

It has been stated the Horse Heaven irrigation canal will conflict with the Camas Prairie project, now under way about 15 miles northeast of here, but Chief Engineer Rice, in charge of the gigantic undertaking, says:

Immense Reservoirs Planned.

"The plans of the company contemplate immense reservoirs. The low water flow of the Klickitat river is insufficient to irrigate these lands, but we propose to construct great storage basins on the upper Klickitat to retain 150,000 acre-feet of water and to otherwise conserve the water so as to provide 300,000 acre-feet, and this stored water will be available for irrigation equally with that appropriated, so that the company can safely sell water to the limit of the carrying capacity of the canal."

It is already known that the detailed estimate of cost of the complete system will aggregate between $12,000,000 and $15,000,000, which is considered the most expensive system of any private project ever undertaken on irrigable lands in the northwest.

Extent of Undertaking.

The irrigable land under the ditch in Klickitat county extends from the Columbia river north 15 miles, and east from a point near Dot to the Benton county line. In Benton county the canal will run along the ridge of the Horse Heaven country, making irrigation possible on both sides of the canal, and in that way cover the entire Horse Heaven plateau. The canal line runs to a point near Hoover, and then turning parallels the Columbia river and has its terminus a few miles north of Plymouth. From here, several intakes in the branches and the main stream of the Klickitat river near Mount Adams it will be about 150 miles long, and no water will be distributed from the canal for the first half or more of its length.

The Commercial Orchard company, says a Prosser capitalist, has invested $1,000,000 in Horse Heaven lands, which is but the forerunner of one of the greatest land-buying rushes the west has yet experienced. The Cunningham tract of 30,000 acres is purported to be included in the deal. Horse Heaven farmers are pooling their lands and are awaiting their price. Within the next few months some of the largest land transfers in the history of that section will be recorded.