Yakima County compiled by County Engineer's office, (1921)

Yakima County compiled by County Engineer's office, (1921)

Yakima County--Maps<br>Indians of North America -- Northwest, Pacific -- Maps<br>Irrigation -- Washington (State) -- Yakima Indian Reservation--Maps<br>United States Reclamation Service<br>Ahtanum Creek

1 map; 31 x 32 cm. Map shows incorporated and unincorporated land, railways, interurban roads, principal roads, elevations, schools, and the Yakima Indian Reservation. The Ahtanum Irrigation District is marked in red.<br> Ahtanum Creek borders the north boundary of the Yakima [Yakama] Indian Reservation. Its waters supply irrigation for some 10,000 acres that make up the Ahtanum Irrigation District in Yakima County. The creek flows into the Yakima River, and at one time supplied salmon to a number of Native American fishing sites along its route. A number of settlers arrived in the region during the 1860s and 1870s. By 1871, the Ahtanum Creek was diverted through an irrigation ditch onto newly claimed farmlands and sped the growth of the town of North Yakima ( the name changed to Yakima in 1918) which incorporated in 1886. The Northern Pacific Railroad and Yakima Irrigation Company won right of way across the Yakima Indian Reservation (begun 1855) to construct an irrigation canal running through the reserved lands. The company's first project was the Sunnyside Canal. While it managed to outlast the Panic of 1893, the canal had lost the financial backing of the Northern Pacific during this time. Lack of funds and poor regulatory practices forced the people of Franklin, Benton, Kittitas and Yakima Counties to request government intervention. The United States Reclamation Service--begun in 1902 to oversee water projects in the West--agreed to take over the "Yakima Project" in 1905. Within five years it had regulated use, built diversion dams, and extended the Sunnyside canal. It was the first of many large projects the Reclamation Service installed in the west.

Marion, W. C., Engr.

Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, WSU Libraries

Yakima : County Engineer's Office

1921

Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections

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English

Maps

WSU 156

United States--Washington (State)--Yakima County