CCC, Reclamation Text



CCC, Reclamation Text

Slide 2. Between 1935 and 1942, over 1,800 CCC and WPA members worked on Reclamation projects in the Treasure Valley. Although the work was far from glorifying, their efforts proved indispensible to the growth and agriculture of the region. By helping rebuild the canals, dams, reservoirs and laterals of the Boise Valley, they solidified the area’s irrigation system and made Treasure Valley one of the top agricultural regions in the country.

Slide 3.

The Bureau of Reclamation (or US Reclamation Service as it was first called) is an agency under the Dept. of the Interior that oversees water resource management; specifically water diversion, delivery, storage and hydroelectric power in the 17 Western states.

In 1902 President Theodore Roosevelt established the Bureau with passage of the Newlands Act. The Bureau’s first director was Frederick Haynes Newell. Although many have criticized the some of the Bureau’s work, they did make much of the West habitable and have inspired engineers the worldover.

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In the early years, many projects encountered problems: lands or soils included in projects were unsuitable for irrigation; land speculation sometimes resulted in poor settlement patterns; proposed repayment schedules could not be met by irrigators who had high land-preparation and facilities-construction costs; settlers were inexperienced in irrigation farming; waterlogging of irrigable lands required expensive drainage projects; and projects were built in areas which could only grow low-value crops. In 1923 the agency was renamed the "Bureau of Reclamation". Then, in the face of increasing settler unrest and financial problems for the reclamation program, in 1924 the "Fact Finder's Report" spotlighted the issues. The Fact Finders Act in late 1924 sought to resolve some of the financial and other problems.

Slide4. John Wesley Powell was the first American to truly understand what an arduous task reclamation would be. In 1878, Powell Published his Report on the Land of the Arid Region. In his paper, he advocated a slow, planned settlement into the West, with an emphasis on communal use of water. Powell’s design was inspired by the cooperative systems practiced by the LDS pioneers in Utah and surrounding states. By organizing settlements around water resources instead of square plots, everyone would have an interest in conserving resources because any abuse, overuse, or pollution of the water would affect everyone in the system. These districts would also give the users some power to stave off railroads and speculators who had little interest in seeing others prosper.

Slide 5-

For many, Powell’s utopian vision seemed way too radical. This lack of centralized control reeked of anarchism. This communal system ran against the grain of everything private enterprise stood for. Many politicians, railroad men and speculators believed that if the nation adopted Powell’s model it would be the first step toward dismantling of the American way of life.

Slide 6.The Treasure Valley was a very difficult area to Homestead. With the exception of those directly off of the Boise and Snake Rivers, Water was very difficult to come by. Those living off-stream had to pay premium prices for any water diverted to their farms. In 1883, Famed Engineer Arther De Wint Foote arrived to build a massive system capable of irrigating Southwest Idaho. Yet the lack of funds, corruption, and the harsh desert kept most of the Treasure Valley inhabitable. After ten years of frustration, Foote left the valley.

Slide 7.

The Minidoka Project was the first RS project in Idaho. Minidoka was chosen first for several reasons. Successful efforts by LDS farmers to irrigate the area gave the RS a head start in the project’s completion. The large number of Carey Act claims in the area showed the RS how serious locals were to seeing such a project through. Also the remote location allowed engineers to improvise and experiment without the prying eyes of the national press and skeptics. Work began in 1904 and was finished in 1906. In 1909, the RS installed the West’s first hydro-electric plant.

Slide 8.

Treasure Valley Boise Project- Arrowrock/Anderson Ranch

Here are two maps showing the irrigation divisions in the Treasure Valley area. The First map shows the Owyhee Project. The green area shows the areas irrigated by the Owyhee dam, reservoir, and North and South Canals. The second map shows the Payette and Arrowrock or Boise Divisions. Today it is known as the Payette/Boise Project. It encompasses six reclamation and one Army Corps of Engineer dam, 3 power plants, 7 pumping plants, over 2000 miles of canals, and 650 miles of drains. Farmers using Boise Project facilities have turned 390,000 acres in southwest Idaho and eastern Oregon into one of the West’s most productive farming regions. Treasure Valley Boise Project- Arrowrock/Anderson Ranch dam

164,000 acres irrigated

27,000 kw of power between DD and Anderson

Payette- Black Canyon, Deadwood, Cascade

61,000 acres irrigated

Black Canyon-10,000 kw of power

Flood control, 48,000 acres surface water

23,000 acres land around water

Owyhee

105,000 acres

30,000 acres land around water

 

Slide 9. Federal workers-

Work on the Boise Project began in 1906. This became the first time the government hired its own workforce. This use of forced account turned out to be very successful and was a precursor to later federal work projects like the CCC.

Slide 10.

The Deer Flat Upper Embankment was the first project the RS used forced account. The Reclamation Service was unhappy with the bids offered by private companies so they decided to do the work themselves. By most accounts, work in the federal camp was far better than work than at the Hubbard & Carlson site. The camp used wooden structures rather than tents. The feds used state of the art gear and the largest steam shovels outside of the Panama Canal. And most importantly, federal employees enjoyed shorter hours and better pay.

Slide 11.

Private problems- Hubbard and Carlson

By contrast the Hubbard & Carlson site was far less desirable. Laborers were oft times local drunks rounded up by the Nampa police and forced to work on the site. The camp used tents and was more vulnerable to inclement weather. While they sometimes proved more reliable, Hubbard & Carlson still relied on horses to do much of the dirty work. And as stated, the pay was not as good and the hours were usually longer.

Slide 12.DFNWR

birds migrating along the Pacific Flyway,

two sectors–Lake Lowell and the Snake River Islands. The Lake Lowell sector encompasses 10,588 acres, including the almost 9,000-acre Lake Lowell and surrounding lands. The Snake River Islands sector contains about 800 acres on 101 islands. These islands are distributed along 113 river miles from the Canyon-Ada County Line in Idaho, to Farewell Bend in Oregon.

240 acres to provide food for wildlife.

With the reservoir completed, President Theodore Roosevelt realized that a nearly 9,000-acre lake in an arid region would be an oasis for wildlife, so he created Deer Flat National Wildlife Refuge in 1909.

First man-made, 23 overall

Deer Flat was unstaffed until 1937, when 36 islands in the Snake River

Slide 13. Diversion Dam-

The New York Canal begins at the Boise River Diversion Dam. It was started in 1906 by the Utah Fire-Proofing Company. Poor weather, shortage of materials and problems with foremen all conspired to cause numerous delays in construction of the dam. In the three years it took to build the structure the UFP Co. went through 18 foremen. And when the dam was finished in 1909 a disgruntled logging foreman maliciously removed the boom holding the timber in place and caused several thousand dollars worth of damage to the spillway. The Power plant was added in 1911 to supply electricity to the Arrowrock Dam worksite. The house carries three turbines that supply 1,500 kw of power.

Slide 14. Arrowrock

The Arrowrock Project started in 1910 with the construction of the Boise & Arrowrock Railroad. Anxious to get started on the dam, the Reclamation Service began building the road without prior authorization from Congress. When the dam was authorized the next year , the RS added the cost of the rail line into the project budget. As the train also carried passengers to the site, it became the first public railroad in the United States. Those brave enough to take the harrowing journey were greeted by a first class resort community. Both visitors and workers came to enjoy the site’s hotel, YMCA, kitchen and dance hall. The camp also featured electricity, running water, a sewer system and fully equipped hospital. By all accounts, the working conditions were excellent and pay was above average for most laborers. As excitement grew during construction, the crews worked day and night to set several records for building efficiency. At 348’ the Arrowrock remained the largest dam in the nation for almost twenty years. Engineers also pioneered the use of internal sensors at Arrowrock to monitor the temperature of the dam’s core.

Slide 15. Black Canyon

Although it was originally conceived in 1905, the RS started work on the Black Canyon Dam in 1922. Two points caused the delay in construction. First, despite widespread speculation, the RS decided to give priority the Boise Project and the Arrowrock dam putting Emmett on the backburner for many years. And second, the large number of conflicting claims in the Emmett area caused concern among the government engineers who did not want to add fuel to the fire. When construction finally started the dam went up very quickly and eclipsed some of the records set by the Arrowrock. Black Canyon is technically a diversion dam as in directly feeds both the North and Black Canyon Canals. It is 184’ high and carries and 8,000kw power plant. Upon completion it became clear that the Emmett Irrigation District had not worked out all of it’s problems over water rights. It took almost ten years of heated debate before the system was finally working to the satisfaction of area farmers.

Slide 16. Deadwood

President Calvin Coolidge approved the Deadwood dam in 1928 and construction began early the following year. Deadwood’s remote location made construction quite difficult. To traverse the 67 mile forest road to the site, the Utah Construction Company used a unique truck/trailer combination specifically designed for the job. Each truck had 200hp, four-wheel drive, and were among the first vehicles in the world to use air brakes. During the winter months, provisions and small tools were brought to the site using dog sleds and horseshoes. Work moved at a breakneck pace and the crew finished the structure in one season. The dam is 165’ and provided stability to the Black Canyon Dam.

Slide 16. Br-73

Slide 17. Owyhee Project

Surveys for the Owyhee dam began in 1903 but work did not begin start until 1928. Power for construction came from the Black Canyon Dam. MK used the site as a testing ground for the Hoover Dam. At 417’ it eclipsed Arrowrock and was the tallest structure until the Hoover was completed in 193_. At the Owyhee, engineers perfected the cooling pipe system now used at every large dam in the world.

Owyhee Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam in Eastern Oregon near Adrian, Oregon, United States. Completed in 1932, the dam generates electricity and provides irrigation water for several irrigation districts in Oregon and neighboring Idaho. At the time of completion it was the tallest dam of its type in the world. The dam impounds the Owyhee River to create the Owyhee Reservoir, with storage capacity of nearly 1,200,000 acre feet (1.48×109 m3) of water. The more than 400-foot (120 m) tall concrete-arch gravity dam is owned by the United States Bureau of Reclamation. Haystack Rock Road is carried over the 833-foot (254 m) long crest of the dam.

|Contents |

|[hide] |

|1 History |

|2 Operations |

|3 Dimensions |

|4 See also |

|5 References |

|6 External links |

[edit] History

In August 1927, the United States government authorized the building of a dam in the canyon of the Owyhee River.[1] Construction of the dam began in 1928 to utilize the river for irrigation projects.[2] It was built on a foundation of massive rhyolite, massive pitchstone, and associated pitchstone agglomerate geologic formations adjacent to the Owyhee Mountains.[2] A project of the Bureau of Reclamation, they hired General Construction Company from Seattle to build the dam.[3]

Former Oregonian and then United States President Herbert Hoover dedicated what was then the highest dam of its type in the world on July 17, 1932.[4] Secretary of the Interior Ray Lyman Wilbur delivered Hoover’s message at the dam.[5] Owyhee would serve as a as prototype for the larger Hoover Dam on the Colorado River,[5] including the use of refrigeration to cool the concrete.[6]

The dam cost $6,000,000, with the total reclamation project costing $18,000,000.[7] Owyhee was designed by Frank A. Banks who also designed other dams such as the Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River.[8] From 1990 to 1993 the dam was remodeled.[2] In the 1980s, electricity generating capabilities were added to the dam.[9] Built without a fish ladder, the dam closed off the Owyhee Chinook salmon runs that would swim as far upstream as Nevada.[10]

[edit] Operations

Water stored at the reservoir is used to irrigate approximately 120,000 acres (490 km2) for use in farming.[5] Four different irrigation district utilize the water from Owyhee Reservoir. There are three hydro-power generating facilities at the reservoir added between 1985 and 1993,[5] with seven megawatt and five megawatt turbines at the dam and power sold to the Idaho Power Company.[9] Owyhee has a unique spillway located part way up the dam that utilizes a 60-foot (18 m) in diameter tunnel to send excess water to the river below during Spring run-off.[11] The United States Bureau of Reclamation owns the facility, with the Owyhee Irrigation District operating the dam.[2]

[edit] Dimensions

Owyhee is 833 feet (254 m) long at the crest, which is 30 feet (9.1 m) wide.[2] The base of the dam is 265 feet (81 m) wide, with a height of 417 feet (127 m). The crest elevation sits at 2,675 feet (815 m) above sea level and has a hydraulic height of 325 feet (99 m). Total concrete used in this arch gravity style dam was 537,500 cubic yards (410,900 m3).[2]

The dam’s spillway can allow 41,790 cubic feet (1,183 m3) per second of water flow, while its tunnel capacity is 1,100 cubic feet (31 m3) per second.[2] The outlet works can allow up to 2,530 cubic feet (72 m3) per second. If completely full, the reservoir would hold 1,183,300 acre feet (1.4596×109 m3) of water,[2] and is 53 miles (85 km) long.[12] The total drainage area of the dam and reservoir is 10,900 square miles (28,000 km2) in Eastern Oregon and western Idaho.

Slide 18.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a public work relief program for unemployed men, focused on natural resource conservation from 1933 to 1942. As part of the New Deal legislation proposed by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR), the CCC was designed firstly, to aid relief of high unemployment stemming from the Great Depression and secondly, carry out a broad natural resource conservation program on national, state and municipal lands. Legislation to create the program was introduced by FDR to the 73rd United States Congress on March 21, 1933, and the Emergency Conservation Work Act, as it was known, was signed into law on March 31, 1933.[1] The CCC became one of the most popular New Deal programs among the general public and operated in every U.S. state and territories of Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. The separate Indian Division was a major relief force for Native Americans.

Members lived in camps, wore uniforms, and lived under quasi-military discipline. At the time of entry, 70% of enrollees were malnourished and poorly clothed. Very few had more than a year of high school education; few had work experience beyond occasional odd jobs. The peace was maintained by the threat of "dishonorable discharge." There were no reported revolts or strikes. "This is a training station we're going to leave morally and physically fit to lick 'Old Man Depression,'" boasted the newsletter of a North Carolina camp.

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[pic]

CCC camps in Michigan; the tents were soon replaced by barracks built by Army contractors for the enrollees.

The total of 200,000 black enrollees were entirely segregated after 1935 but received equal pay and housing. Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes pressured Director Fechner to appoint blacks to supervisory positions such as education directors in the 143 segregated camps.

Initially, the CCC was limited to young men age 18 to 25 whose fathers were on relief. Average enrollees were ages 18-19. Two exceptions to the age limits were veterans and Indians, who had a special CCC program and their own camps. In 1937, Congress changed the age limits to 17 to 28 years old and dropped the requirement that enrollees be on relief.

Slide 19. BR-24

Between 1935 and 1942, camp Br-24 housed the CCC co. 2506. BR-24 was stationed at the current location of the Lower Deer Flat Embankment Recreation Area. Workers refaced the embankments with lava rock, cleared canals, and constructed water control features and built decorative stone parapets along each dam. Further the crew teamed up with members of the WPA to provide logistical support for the Reserve by pulling weeds, building roads and fences and engaging in a massive rodent abatement program. The camp also provided education opportunities and the opportunite to learn trades such as auto repair and masonry. The camp’s newsletter the Damsite Echo also retold of sporting events, inside jokes and offered enrollees to chance to show off their art and writing skills.

Slide 20. BR-25,26

Camps BR 25 and 26 worked on the eastern side of the Bosie Project and Arrowrock and the Diverison Dam> Work included building a weather station, a telephone line, road repairs, and refacing the DD. When Br25 closed, the enrollees moved over to the Black Canyon dam where the built roads, canal improvements and guard rails around the powerplant. In 1937 the crew moved to BR73.

Slide 21 Br 73.

BR-73 was located near Kuna near the New York Canal. The boys were considered “troublemakers” and discipline was somewhat of a problem until; they found a company commander who the crews liked. The Boys built an “Eden” in the desert and were roundly lauded for their work. Along with irrigation work camp Br-73 offered numerous opportunites for enrollees to expand their education with a library, typing room, two classrooms and well equipped shop. Classes included RRR, ethics, journalism, photography, engine repair and aeronautical. The camp was closed in 1941. Company 3279.

Slide 22. BR-42,43

Camps BR-42 and 43 worked in the Ontario and Nysssa areas and on the Owyhee Project. They built fences and telephone lines, roads, cleared waterways built pipelines and provided ecological support for the area. The crews also salvaged the old Owyhee Dam Railroad to make room for the highway that now leads to the damsite. The rails had to be loaded by hand and it is a miracle no one was killed in the process. They also built houses for ditchriders in the area decorative walls in the area. The camps also had well equipped mechanic shops so enrollees could learn a trade they could use after leaving the camps. The capms were closed in 1942.

Slide 23, Anderson Ranch

Reclamation began surveys for the AR in 1939 and work began in 1941. Yet with the onset of WWII the system was postponed. By 1946 only one third of the dam was completed. Along with war time shortages engineers fialed to account for the massive removal of trees needed to build the structure. The dam was finally finished in 1950. It’s PP generates 27,000kw of power. In the end the delays did give some benefits as inflation helped bring the dam 10,000,000 under budget.

Slide 24. Cascade

Cascade Dam was drawn up in 1941 but again WWII put the Project on hold. In 1946 MK won the contract to build the dam and finished in in 1948. The Cascade came right at the beginning of the “big Dam” era that would eventually culminate in the giant Glen Canyon and Bonneville dams. It was mainly built by private labor and was the last to by built on the P/B Project. It is 107’ tall and is mostly an embankment dam.

Slide 25. Other

Swan Falls Dam is a concrete gravity type hydroelectric dam on the Snake River, in the U.S. state of Idaho. It is located near Murphy, Idaho.

The dam was built in 1901 to generate electricity. It is the oldest hydroelectric dam on the Snake River. In the 1990s the original power plant was replaced with a new one.[2] The dam was built with fish passage facilities, but they proved to be very poor in performance. For this reason, among others, the C. J. Strike Dam, built upriver from Swan Falls Dam in the early 1950s, was not equipped with fish passage facilities. Thus the two dams combined to become the first artificial barrier to anadromous fish migration up the Snake River. Today Hells Canyon Dam is the first total barrier to fish migration on the Snake.[4]

The dam and its reservoir lie within the Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area.[2] The dam and power plant were listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

C. J. Strike Dam is an earth-fill type hydroelectric dam on the Snake River, just below the Bruneau River confluence, in the U.S. state of Idaho. Its location is near Grand View, Idaho. Its impoundment extends 36 miles (58 km) up the Snake River and 12 miles (19 km²) up the Bruneau River.[4]

The dam's powerplant has a nameplate capacity of 82.8 MW.[2]

The dam was named after Clifford J. Strike, the general manager of Idaho Power Company from 1938 to 1948.[2]

Due to the poor fish passage performance of Swan Falls Dam, the C.J. Strike Dam, upriver from Swan Falls, was built without fish passage facilities. Thus the two dams combined to became the first artificial barrier to anadromous fish migration up the Snake River. Today Hells Canyon Dam is the first total barrier to fish migration on the Snake.[5]

Slide 26.

Lucky Peak Dam is a rolled earth and gravel fill dam on the Boise River in Ada County, Idaho, U.S.A.. At the time of its construction in the early 1950s, its primary purpose was flood control, with a secondary purpose of irrigation.[1] Hydroelectric power generation was added in 1988. The normal operating elevation of the full reservoir is 3055 feet (931 m) above sea level, the empty reservoir's elevation (Boise River) is 2824 feet (861 m). [3]

Construction began in November 1949 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the dam was operational in 1955. Most of the federal dams in southern Idaho, including the others on the Boise River, were built by the Bureau of Reclamation. The Idaho Power Company, a private utility, built multiple hydroelectric dams on the Snake River.

Lucky Peak Dam is located along State Highway 21, 10 miles (16 km) upstream from the city of Boise, and below the older concrete arch Arrowrock Dam, completed in 1915. Originally built without hydroelectric power generation, the construction of the Lucky Peak powerhouse was begun in 1984 and became operational in 1988, generating electricity primarily for Seattle City Light.[4]

Mann Creek

The Bureau of Reclamation began the investigation of Mann Creek at the Spangler Reservoir site in 1938. A storage application was made in 1940 by the United States for 10,000 acre-feet of water. Results of the investigation were presented in a report on the Mann Creek Project dated October 1940. The project was approved for construction in July 1941 under the terms of the Water Conservation and Utilization Act. The land-owners of the Mann Creek area failed to approve the proposed repayment contract by a narrow margin, and the project was not constructed. One of the principal reasons given for rejection of the proposed plan was that the landowners below the Joslyn Ditch would not receive storage water at low reservoir stages.

An alternative reservoir site about 1 mile upstream from the Spangler site that permitted diversion to the Joslyn Ditch at all times was investigated. Reauthorization of the Mann Creek Project, with development of storage at the Yoder site, was recommended with a number of other projects for construction in a basin-pooling plan under which irrigation projects would receive financial assistance from power projects in the Columbia River Basin. The proposals were not adopted by Congress.

A new study was prepared on the Spangler site in 1958, followed by authorization and development of a definite plan.

Authorization

The Mann Creek Project was authorized for construction by the Act of August 16, 1962 (76 Stat. 388, Public Law 87-589).

Project purposes are irrigation, recreation, and conservation and development of fish and wildlife. The recreation purpose is associated with the minimum basic recreation facilities. The fish and wildlife purpose is related to works included for fishery mitigation.

Construction

Construction of Mann Creek Dam and Reservoir began in 1965 and was completed in 1967.

Slide 27. World War II

WWII brought a new level of federal workers to the Treasure Valley area. Many women were encouraged to pick up where the men left off and did an admirable job. The federal Bracero program took over several of the CCC camps and while they did a great job they wre treated terribly and Mexico even boycotted the State of Idaho for a time. Even German and Italian POWs worked on the Boise Project.

Slide 28. Ag. – irrigation,

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