Water and American Government: The Reclamation Bureau, National Water Policy, and the West, 1902-1935Donald Pisani's history of perhaps the boldest economic and social program ever undertaken in the United States--to reclaim and cultivate vast areas of previously unusable land across the country—shows in fascinating detail how ambitious government programs fall prey to the power of local interest groups and the federal system of governance itself. What began as the underwriting of a variety of projects to create family farms and farming communities had become by the 1930s a massive public works and regional development program, with an emphasis on the urban as much as on the rural West. |
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Page xiii
... crop failure in 1894. Drought reinforced demands for federal aid , as it did in 1899–1900.6 The depression of the 1890s suggested that the nation could not survive without defusing urban tensions , without a return to the land and to ...
... crop failure in 1894. Drought reinforced demands for federal aid , as it did in 1899–1900.6 The depression of the 1890s suggested that the nation could not survive without defusing urban tensions , without a return to the land and to ...
Page xvi
... crops and how to reduce litigation over water rights . Never- theless , when the Reclamation Act passed Congress , federal officials knew surprisingly little about how much unclaimed or “ surplus ” water the region's lakes and rivers ...
... crops and how to reduce litigation over water rights . Never- theless , when the Reclamation Act passed Congress , federal officials knew surprisingly little about how much unclaimed or “ surplus ” water the region's lakes and rivers ...
Page 4
... crops and water supply , and that we ought to build a reservoir there at once . I am fully convinced that we ought to do everything right now . ” Western politicians had worked hard to push the Reclamation Act through Congress ; now ...
... crops and water supply , and that we ought to build a reservoir there at once . I am fully convinced that we ought to do everything right now . ” Western politicians had worked hard to push the Reclamation Act through Congress ; now ...
Page 5
... crops — such as celery and rice — could not be cultivated without irrigation . Connecticut received an average fifty inches of precipi- tation per year , but the state's Board of Agriculture estimated that at least three inches of rain ...
... crops — such as celery and rice — could not be cultivated without irrigation . Connecticut received an average fifty inches of precipi- tation per year , but the state's Board of Agriculture estimated that at least three inches of rain ...
Page 6
... crop yields would increase as much as four or five times, and experiments confirmed that irri- gation paid off. A Wisconsin study showed that irrigation cost an average $6.68 per acre per year, but irrigated hay returned $20 an acre and ...
... crop yields would increase as much as four or five times, and experiments confirmed that irri- gation paid off. A Wisconsin study showed that irrigation cost an average $6.68 per acre per year, but irrigated hay returned $20 an acre and ...
Contents
1 | |
Federal Reclamation 19021909 | 32 |
Twin Falls and Rupert | 65 |
Federal Reclamation 19091917 | 96 |
Federal Reclamation 19171935 | 123 |
The Reclamation Service and the Bureau of Indian Affairs | 154 |
Illustrations | 180 |
The Yakima and the Pima | 181 |
The Strange Career of Public Power | 202 |
Water Politics 19201935 | 235 |
Retrospect and Significance | 272 |
ABBREVIATIONS | 297 |
NOTES | 299 |
INDEX | 389 |
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Common terms and phrases
A. P. Davis Administrative agriculture American April arid Arizona Ballinger bill Boulder Dam build Bureau of Reclamation California Carey Act Central Colorado River Commission Commissioner of Indian Cong construction Corps of Engineers cost crops dams and canals December districts electricity Elwood Mead F. H. Newell farm farmers federal government federal reclamation flood control Franklin K Herbert Hoover Hiram Johnson Homecroft Hoover hydroelectric Ibid Idaho Indian Affairs Indian Office irrigation irrigation projects January July June legislation March Maxwell million acres Minidoka Project Mississippi Montana Muscle Shoals October percent Pima public land Reclamation Act Reclamation Bureau reclamation fund reclamation projects Reclamation Record Reclamation Service Report reservation reservoir River Project Roosevelt Salt River Project Secretary Senate settlers Snake River streams Theodore Roosevelt tion town United Valley Washington water policy Water Power water projects water rights West western Yakima Yakima River York