Dead Ox Flat

WEISER, Ida., July 20, 1912 – Lured by the glitter of gold, prospectors for decades trod the shores of the mighty Snake in quest of wealth, from its waters, blind to the fact that no process of miner’s skill could wrest the treasure from the stream. It is there, but for years it has baffled those who sought to separate it from the sand and gravel of the river bed. The prospectors, reluctant, at last aban- doned their seeking and in their wake, came brawny men from the crowded east who said: “Here in this beautiful valley, we will make our homes and till the soil.

Choice to their eyes was Dead Ox Flat, which occupies the far eastern border of Oregon. Miles in length and breadth, and almost as smooth and level as a village road, it seemed a likely spot. Dense, high sagebrush assured them of the soil’s fertility, and these hardy pioneers took up their homesteads. They dug their wells and fought against the sagebrush and the sun, cleared a few acres, builded small shacks for homes, and struggled to wrest a livelihood from the soil. Some were successful beyond their fondest hopes. Others early gave up the struggle, but their places were taken rapidly. Finally many men obtained their patents to the homestead and numbers of them sold their deed for a pittance and moved on, little knowing that they were leaving fortune behind.

Dead Ox Flat blossomed and bloomed, but irrigated lands came into being in neighboring sections, and appeared so much more attractive that many of the “dry farmers” of the flat sought the easier way. Others stayed on, tilling their soil, with rain as their only moisture. Some were so successful that last year they harvested wheat running 55 bushels to the acre, but these were the rare, few, straggling exceptions, and the majority of the land owners on Dead Ox Flat required hundreds of acres to make farming profitable, while great stretches that had been homesteaded and sold lay idle and returned to sage-brush.

How It is Joined to Idaho, Dead Ox Flat, be it understood, is a great, wide plateau, rising sheer from the bed of the Snake River to a height of from 50 to 300 feet. It extends from the extreme western edge of the Weiser valley, many miles eastward, following the sinuous sweep of the Snake. It is joined to Idaho by a bridge which extends into the city limits of Weiser.

Then a few short years ago owners of land and settlers began to wish for water for irrigation. Engineers looked over the land and promptly told them that irrigation by gravity system was out of the question. Then came stories of irrigating with pumps. Powerful transmission lines, bearing vast quantities of electricity, were strung over Dead Ox Flat. Below them lay great tracts of the most fertile soil in Ithe northwest – soil which had produced as high as 55 acres of wheat under dry farming and still further below the Snake river flowed through its little canyon and carried tons of the water to the sea.

Here was the rich volcanic ash soil, with a fine substrata of gravel, providing excellent drainage, and there was the water, from 50 to 300 feet below, for irrigation. The power was plentiful. The next problem was to unite these three in a profitable combination.

First Efforts at Reclamation.

Some venturesome farmer whose lands were near the edge of the flat installed a small motor and pipeline. He started putting water on his acres, and they blossomed like the garden of Eden. He tried fruit trees, and they flourished. Alfalfa and almost every other soil product seemed striving to set a record for growth. Then the pioneer’s neighbor bought a small motor, and this was followed by small companies which owned large areas. The Mainland interests installed a small pumphouse and equipment, and their 440 acres became wealth producers.

Then came the great Snow-Moody Project, which undertook to deliver water to thousands of acres from a huge pumping plant. Young orchards began to dot the landscape, and the whole section took on a new aspect. Gold, for which the prospectors had sifted the same sand decades before; gold, for which the homesteaders had sought in vain, was in sight, and with this discovery the greatest era of rapid development ever witnessed was under way, for it was discovered that power could be supplied so cheaply and land benefited so greatly that the pump systems, In cost, were superior in many cases even to the gravity systems. As a result, this year is producing a tremendous transformation. Within six months, The face of Dead Ox Flat has become entirely changed and ere six months more have been added, it will be unrecognizable even to those who knew it intimately AS long as 18 months ago. Wonderful in land the rapidity with which it is changing, the land is becoming the green and beautiful tint of growing things and great tracts of sagebrush and wide areas of grain are giving way to the budding young orchard, the thriving berry and garden patches and the crops which make the small tract desirable to land-hungry hordes.

Ten thousand acres will be placed under irrigation this year alone in three separate projects. Realizing of that in watering their land, as in many other things, co-operation, would reduce the individual burden to the settlers formed districts under the friendly, encouraging law of Oregon undertook to reclaim the land. In addition to the great area whose productivity will be increased many fold by irrigation this year, other projects under way will add still more to the number of acres to be watered. 

On Dead Ox Flat today, it is no uncommon sight to see standing proudly on the plain, a beautiful, modern bungalow home, handsome barn and other spick and span new out- buildings, all newly fenced with from 40 to 100 acres in orchard trees and other crops, all planted since the last winter’s snows vanished. It is no uncommon sight to see a brilliant landscape, with every evidence of profit, where a year ago there was nothing but sagebrush.

Vast stretches of raw land have given way to the plow and the cultivator and under the welcome influence of water have been planted to crops which spell profit and success.

For Greater Development. 

Organized early last spring. Snake River District Development association was formed by the land owners embraced in its borders and within a few short weeks all preliminary details had been completed and the contract had been awarded for the construction of the pumping house and irrigation plant which is to deliver water up to 2500 acres be- fore next September. Much of this land, already is under cultivation by dry farming methods but much more has been producing nothing but the volunteer sagebrush. With the formation of the district, the removal of sagebrush and preparation of the land for the more profitable crops began. Homes will be ready for occupation and small tracts will be ready for intensive farming methods at the instant, the big pumps are turned on and water begins gushing through the pipes up the incline and on to the waiting, fertile soil of Dead Ox Flat.

Only a few miles from Weiser, the owners of an area, 1500 acres in extent, decided to have water. They formed their district but did not incorporate. They asked no aid of outside capital; they sought no promoter. Their officers were chosen from their own number; farmers all and as a result water was turned on last May to the Crystal Improvement district through one of the most attractive pumping plants in the country at the extremely reasonable cost of $20 per acre. This covered all the expense of organization and installation. The annual cost for the use of the water is merely nominal.

This Crystal plant is owned and was built by the farmers themselves. In many respects it is unique and a model. Through two electric motors, aggregating 125 horsepower, water will be delivered entirely in pipes.

Oher Districts Being Settled

Sunk in the pumphouse and surrounded by thick walls of concrete, the two powerful motors are located at water level, giving greater force for the 40-foot lift necessary to put water on the highest land in the district. The main supply pipe which is 20 inches in diameter, extends for a distance of 4000 feet with smaller pipes radiating from it at intervals.

Adjoining this district, is the Snow Moody Project covering 8000 acres on the Oregon side of the river between Payette and Weiser. Abutting the Snow Moody Project on the north is the Snake River Improvement district. Contracts call for its completion by September 15. It will require, in its construction, a mile of 36-inch pipe, and a mile and a half of 16- inch pipe which will carry the water 80 feet to the highest point of distribution from whence it will reach 2500 acres.

Within half a mile to the North of the Snake river district project is the Riverside pumping plant which covers 2000 acres. Farther north at the lower end of the flat, and a little west of Weiser, is the Porter plant which supplies water to 600 acres.

Thus, within a single year, all of these pump irrigation systems will solve the problem of the early gold- seekers on at least 14,696 acres of land as fertile as any to be found in the northwest. Climatic conditions are ideal and growth of crops already planted assures success. The great speed with which the sagebrush and the dry farming crops are giving way to the profit-bearing orchards, and gardens is an amazing example of the progressive pace which the farmer hits, once he sees the way.