Klodette Stroh

Celebrating Thanksgiving always reminds me of God’s love and blessing. Farmers like me thank him for his partnership to help us produce food and fiber for his people. As young America was being established, the Founding Fathers’ priority was to settle the West via farming and ranching, which would enhance exporting goods to other countries. In 1790 the value of tobacco exports was $4.36 million, and in 1809 the average annual value of agriculture exports was $23 million. Agricultural exports were as high as $574 million per year in 1880-1809.

Settling the West with farming and ranching industry meant developing a viable irrigation system because water is the most precious natural resource in the United States. Without water there would be no row crops in western states, thus, settlement impossible.

Before the 1900s, the United States Congress had already invested heavily in America’s infrastructure. Roads, river navigation, canals, and railroads received major subsidies. The government was trying to settle the West by subsidization. In 1866 Congress passed an act granting the right-of-way to ditch and canal owners over public lands. In 1877 the Desert Land Act was passed and the Carey Act in 1894, which were all intended to encourage irrigation projects in the West.

Early settlers diverted water from nearby streams and rivers, but demand quickly exceeded supply. There was fertile land in the West, but the problem was to get water to the land in order to grow food  to support a family. In order to fulfill the goal of settling the western states, the federal government conducted a study with the help of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). John Wesley Powell traveled to Colorado, Wyoming and other states to explore. Incidentally our little town is named after him. Powell wrote his Western exploration report and presented it to the United States Congress. His report called to start water development in western states. The reclamation concept was that irrigation would reclaim arid lands for farmers to grow crops and settle the West.

Shortly after the Civil War, President Ulysses S. Grant appointed Joseph Carey to the U.S. District Attorney office for Wyoming. Later he served as a delegate to Congress for the Wyoming Territory. During his term in Congress, Joseph Carey authored the bill to admit Wyoming to statehood. Carey was rewarded when the people of Wyoming elected him as the first U.S. senator on Nov. 12, 1890. He worked diligently and convinced members of the U.S. Congress to give the rights to settlers to convert the water from rivers to sustain their livelihood. Wyoming became the first state in the union to claim state ownership of water rights.

This event happened at the time that the state constitution was ratified in 1890. The Carey Act of 1894 gave each public land state (14 western states and three territories) a million acres on which they could encourage irrigation and settlement. One of the Carey projects in our area was built by William F. Cody (Buffalo Bill) and his partner Nate Salsbury who filed a water rights permit in 1899 to develop 120,000 acres of the Shoshone Valley (50 miles east of Cody). Later on this permit was transferred to farmers of Shoshone Irrigation Project.

Theodore Roosevelt supported the Reclamation Act and signed it on June 17, 1902 which authorized construction of irrigation projects in western states. The Congress also approved and appropriated a $50 million loan to 14 western states to build irrigation projects such as dams and irrigation canals with the stipulation that the users of the water on the projects would pay the loan back.

Shoshone Irrigation Project’s water was first delivered to homesteaders on the Garland Division in April of 1908 prior to the completion of the Shoshone Dam. As a result, $2,250,000 was set aside to build the Shoshone Dam (renamed Buffalo Bill Dam in 1946). Four irrigation districts below the Buffalo Bill Dam are known as the Shoshone Irrigation Project. It is the largest federal irrigation project in the State of Wyoming. The four districts are Garland (Shoshone) Division established in 1907, Frannie Division adjudicated in 1917, Willwood District in 1927 and the Heart Mountain Irrigation District which was  adjudicated after World War II in 1946.

In 1991, the four districts in the Shoshone Project qualified for Rehabilitation and Betterment (R&B) loans to upgrade aging structures. The Small Reclamation Project Act (SRPA) had authorized in 1956 Rehabilitation and Betterment (R&B) of Federal reclamation projects, including small reclamation projects. The sole purpose of SRPA was to assist farmers of this area. Federal funds were made available for repair, replacement, or improvements to the project’s structures and systems in case any system deteriorated or became obsolete to the extent that the cost of work became more than water users could afford. 

The Shoshone Irrigation Project (SIP) qualified for $7.5 million by the R&B program. The Wyoming Water Development Commission awarded SIP $7.5 million grant to match the loan. In 1991 Rehabilitation and Betterment started project restoration working with United States Bureau of Reclamation regulation and State of Wyoming water commission program, and it was completed in 2000-2001, totaling $15 million.

The Shoshone Irrigation Project (all four districts) has a 40-year repayment obligation to our government. The annual repayment of the four districts towards the R&B loan is due on Jan. 1 of each year. Principle of the reclamation program is that (1) federal monies spent on reclamation water development project which benefits water users would be repaid by the water users, (2) projects remain a federal property even when the water users repaid federal construction costs, (3) reclamation can contract with private sector for construction, (4) reclamation employees make sure the construction work meets government specification. 

The important concept to understand is that the Reclamation Act laws are operated under the state water laws. This means the federal government cannot override the state water laws. Preparation of the assessment roll is the duty of the commissioners of each district to repay the original project construction, or operation and maintenance of the irrigation district which is paid back by water rights land assessment.  The assessment roll shall show the amount assessed against each lot, tract, and easement of land; and against each current year indebtedness of the district.  All such assessments for current expenses shall be based upon irrigable acreage.

Further subdivision of an original Farm Unit creates additional “Farm Ownership” if the ownership of the subdivided portion has changed. For example: A farm unit which has been subdivided into five small tracts having a different owner for each tract should be considered five farm ownerships instead of one; thus, each new owner must pay assessment on his/her own respective water righted property.

The arid lands of Wyoming have become productive and have flourished. Wyoming people put the water to beneficial uses such as in agriculture, municipality, industry and recreation. The largest irrigation project in Wyoming is in Park County, the Shoshone Irrigation District. Farmers such as my husband and I depend on water and the Wyoming state water laws to protect our farming rights. The towns of Cody, Powell, Deaver and Lovell all depend on the availability of water. The output of the agricultural sector in Wyoming exceeds $2.45 billion annually with Park County ranking first in barley and sugar beet production, second in dry bean production, fifth in corn. Nationally, Wyoming ranks in the top 10 for pinto beans, barley, all dry beans and sugar beet production which is quite impressive.

In concluding my brief recollection of the history of our beloved town and state, I’d like to share this story with you, told to me by my mother. People in a small European town blessed themselves passing a certain town wall. They couldn't give any explanation why they did this, other than a tradition passed down by their elders. One day town workers were cleaning the wall and as they scraped, they found a mural of Mary and the child Jesus. This explained the reason for reverence and homage to that town wall.

As we scrape the pages of history and look for the hidden picture behind lush, green fields of crops that we are blessed with today, we understand the wisdom of western water laws written by Elwood Mead and the 1902 Act of Congress, and we can appreciate the benefits of water and agricultural promotion in western states.

Klodette Stroh is the Sugar Chairman for Women Involved In Farm Economics