Colusa County History
History Traced From a State of Nature Through The Early Period of 
Settlement and Development, to the Present Day 
With a Description of its Resources, Statistical Tables, Etc. 
also, Biographical Sketches of Pioneers and Prominent Residents 
By Justus H. Rogers, Orland, California, 1891

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper, Oct 2009

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives 
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CHAPTER XI.

IRRIGATION AND RECLAMATION

IRRIGATION AND IRRIGATION DISTRICTS

In the preceding pages have been noted in chronological order the various irrigation enterprises in the county. Numerous private water-rights have been located, both on the Sacramento River and Stony Creek. Messrs. Boggs, Packer and others have a ditch out of the river near Princeton, from which they irrigate their lands during high water in the river, as also have Messrs. De Jarnatt, Bridgford & Mulligan, Porter & Willis, Pope, Beville, and others, near Colusa. John L. Smith some years ago took out a ditch from Stony Creek to use the water to run his flouring-mill. From this ditch he also irrigated his fields and raised alfalfa. The Stony Creek Improvement Company, the purchasers of his land, have taken out a ditch higher up the- creek, which carries more water and takes it over the higher lands of the place. Another ditch is taken out below and on the opposite side of the creek from the Smith ditch, by the land-owners in this locality, who use it in growing alfalfa and watering orchards. A short distance below the last-mentioned ditch, a smaller one is taken out to irrigate a Chinese orchard and garden. These several ditches spreading out over that portion of Stony Creek Valley, clothes it in a perennial verdure, and makes a productive locality. The Fruto Land and Improvement Company has dug a six-mile ditch to the lands of the company, which carries water for irrigating alfalfa. Several ditches are taken out about the town of Elk Creek, and some small ditches lower down the creek than that place.

The Stony Creek Irrigation Company, incorporated in 1888, are working on a ditch thirty feet wide, which takes water from Stony Creek nine miles northwest of Orland, and extends to the southeast. About eight miles of the works are completed and will carry water to the lands adjacent for irrigation next season. The stockholders of the company are: C. B. Asherst, Red Bluff, G. W. Murdock, F. C. Graves and T. J. Kirkpatrick, Orland.

The Orland Irrigation District was organized September 10, 1887, under the "Wright law," being the first district to be organized in the county. The district embraced about fourteen thousand acres of land, lying in Colusa and Tehama Counties, on the north side of Stony Creek. This district was later abandoned, owing to opponents of the measure, and, August 20, 1888, the Kraft Irrigation District organized, leaving out those in opposition to the measure and including two thousand acres of land which the owners desired in the district.

The Central Irrigation District was organized November 22, 1887, by a vote of the electors of the district. The district embraces one hundred and fifty-six thousand five hundred and fifty acres of land lying on the plains and in the central part of the county. On the second day of the following April, the question of bonding the district to raise money for the construction of irrigation works was voted upon by the electors of the district, resulting in favor of issuing bonds by a vote of one hundred and ninety for and thirty-five against. The amount of bonds issued was $750,000, which amount was estimated sufficient to construct the necessary works. These bonds are issued for twenty years, dated July 1, 1888, and bear interest at the rate of six per cent, payable semi-annually. They are redeemable in installments at the end of the eleventh and each succeeding year until final maturity. Contracts to the extent of $290,000 for excavating canals, were let in October, 1889, and considerable of this work is already completed.

The source of water supply is the Sacramento River, the head of the canal being near the northeast corner of the county, from which its course for six miles is southerly, when it bears to the southwest, crossing the railroad track just south of Willows. About six miles to the southwest of Willows, the course of the canal is nearly due south, following the foot-hills to a point about midway between Williams and Arbuckle, where its outlet is in a small creek. The main canal for about thirty miles is seventy feet from bank to bank and sixty-five feet on the bottom. Lateral or sub-canals supply the lands away from the main canal with water.

The first six miles of the canal is a deep cut, ranging from ten to sixteen feet. The contract for excavating this distance was let to the San Francisco Bridge Company at seventeen and three-fourths cents per cubic yard. For doing this work the company designed and built a large ditching machine, of which the accompanying engraving is a true representation. This is the largest machine of the nature ever constructed on the Pacific Coast. The earth-handling portion of the machine consists of twenty-three large bucket-shaped scoops, linked together, forming an endless chain which revolves on two reels, one elevated and the other down, at a varying angle of from forty to fifty degrees. This chain of buckets revolves on the reels, filling with earth as they turn in coming up, which is emptied on long drapers that carry it to either bank of the canal. The machinery is propelled by an engine of two hundred horse-power. All this machinery rests on a truss or bridge one hundred and eight feet long, and across which it moves by steam-power upon massive car wheels. The truss is moved also by steam along the course of the canal upon railroad tracks placed on each side of the ditch. The entire machine weighs two hundred and seventy-five tons, and has cost over $50,000. It is run day and night. An electric light plant attached to the machine furnishes light for operating at night, eight arc and eight incandescent lights being used. Thirty men are employed during the day and twelve during the night. In a day of twenty-two hours' work, the machine excavates about four thousand yards of earth, which is equal to the labor of four hundred men. This work is under the superintendence of N. L. Kirk, an engineer of much experience and practical judgment. The canal is left clean and in a finished condition. The machine is said to be more powerful and efficient in excavating than any of the many machines used on the Panama Canal.

The following persons are officers of the Central Irrigation District: Board of Directors, F. X. St. "Louis, H. B. St. Louis, P. Hagan, J. F. Durham and H. P. Eakle; Secretary, R. De Lappe; Assessor, S. West; Collector, P. H. Graham; Treasurer, G. B. Hardin; Chief Engineer, C. E. Grunsky; Assistant Engineer, W. S. Green.

The Orland Southside Irrigation District, embracing twenty six thousand acres of land on the south side of Stony Creek, including the town of Orland, was organized January 14, 1888, and later $100,000 of bonds of the district issued, but not sold.

The Colusa Irrigation District was organized July 9, 1888, embracing about one hundred thousand acres of land bordering upon, and back from, the Sacramento River, on the west side thereof. Several attempts have also been made to organize a district embracing lands about College City,- but have never met with success.


RECLAMATION DISTRICTS.

Of reclamation districts there are three in the county. The first to be formed was district No. 108, organized under the laws of the State, on the twenty-eighth day of September, 1870, for the purpose of reclaiming a body of land situated on the west bank of the Sacramento River, in Yolo and Colusa Counties, beginning at Knights Landing, extending northerly along the river twenty-five miles to Wilkins Slough, and westerly to the high, or plains, land, containing, in Yolo County, forty thousand eight hundred and five acres, and in Colusa County, thirty-three thousand two hundred and eighty acres, aggregating seventyfour thousand and eighty-five acres. A small portion of this territory, on the extreme northwestern end of the district, was detached by the formation of Reclamation District No. 124, in October, 1871. Other portions of the territory of the district, on the southern and western border, have from time to time been excepted from assessment by the assessment commissioners appointed by the Board of Supervisors of Yolo County, to levy assessments on the lands of the district.

For the purpose of protecting the lands of the district from overflow by the flood-waters of the Sacramento, a levee has been constructed and maintained, under the direction of the trustees, on and along the west bank of the river from Knights Landing, in Yolo County, to Shepard Slough, in Colusa County, the head of overflow, a distance of seventy-five miles. In connection with this levee, two bulk-heads have been constructed, one at Lower Sycamore Slough, near Knights Landing, the other at the mouth of Upper Sycamore Slough, six miles southerly from Colusa. A large pumping plant has also been established at the mouth of Lower Sycamore Slough, having a capacity of forty thousand gallons' discharge per minute, for the purpose of freeing the lands of the district from accumulations of water from seepage and other sources. When this enterprise was undertaken, the assessed value of the lands was less than $100,000; now the assessed value of the lands is $1,064,702.

District No. 124 lies to the northwest of the former, and the lands therein have also been protected from overflow by an extensive system of levees. On the east side of the river is a reclamation, or protection, district recently formed. This embraces the lands of L. F. Moulton and others from overflow, and much work has been done during the past season in this last district. Aside from those of the districts named are many levees built by the land-owners adjacent to the river.

It is also proposed to build an outlet canal to carry off the flood-waters of the river and the water-shed from the foot-hills. It is proposed to build this outlet canal from Hamilton Bend, above Colusa, to some point below Knights Landing. It is thought that such a canal would relieve the river from any possibility of overflow of its banks, and at the same time protect the lands from being flooded by the water-shed of the foot-hills.

The national government is beginning to give the preservation of the Sacramento River more attention, as a navigable stream, and in this connection a commission, composed of prominent men of the State who have the preservation of our rivers at heart, has been formed to aid in the work.