| Photos From Wyoming Tales and Trails This Page: Powell, John Wesley Powell, the Reclamation Act of 1902. |
 |
|
| Photos From Wyoming Tales and Trails This Page: Powell, John Wesley Powell, the Reclamation Act of 1902. |
|
|
|
|
About This Site |
 Powell, Wyoming, 1909. In the foreground is the Garland Canal which reached what was to become Powell in 1908. The two-story building with the flag in the front is the headquarters building for the United States Bureau of Reclamation in charge of the construction of the Shoshone Project for the Bureau. Upon the completion of the project and sale of the lands to settlers, the building became the headquarters of Shoshone Irrigation District. The building has since been moved and now houses the Homesteader's Historical Museum.
 Townsite lot sale, 1909. In Wyoming other "instant" towns arose. Most were associated with the coming of the railroad or as a result of a mining rush. Powell was an instant town as a result of the coming of irrigation. One of those who bid in two lots, Lots 17 and 18, Block 44, was Martin Luther Pratt. In 1912, he purchased a third lot. Pratt was a partner in the "Pratt Brothers Big Store." In 1912, Pratt was elected on the Republican ticket as a representative from Park County. In the election, Republicans won a majority of the seats in the House, 30 Republicans to 27 Democrats; that is, until two Republicans were, in the words of John Charles Thompson, Jr. of the Wyoming State Tribune, "seduced" by the Democrats to proclaim themselves as Progressives and vote in the organization of the House with the Democrats. In the case of Pratt, the Democrats had to pay a price, the election of Pratt, a freshman representative, to the Speaker's chair. A Democrat was selected as speaker pro tem. The uproad was immediate. The election of a United States Senator hung in balance, for in those days senators were elected by the State Legislature. Ten days later, a sheriff from West Virginia attempted to arrest the other former Republican on a ten-year old forgery charge. Speaker Pratt, with visions of being selected as United States Senator or even the governorship, had an epiphany, saw the light, and converted back to the Republicans. The Democrats, having bribed with the speakership Pratt to convert to their party, now accused the Republicans of having bribed Pratt with money. The scene in the House looked like a bar-room fight when Speaker Pratt physically threw the Democratic speaker pro tem from the rostrum. Things ultimately returned to a mild uproar and Senator Warren, a Republican, was safely returned to Washington. Perfidity has a price. Needless, to say, Pratt's visions of the governor's chair or a Senate seat as well as reelection came to naught and he crawled back to Powell with his tail between his legs. Thus, he fell out of the limelight hardly ever to be seen again. In 1922, Pratt was spotted in Big Horn County.
 Irrigation canal near Powell, undated. In the background is Heart Mountain, the site during World War II of the Heart Mountain War Relocation Camp, discussed on the next page, in which some 11,000 persons of Japanese ancestry were relocated from the West Coast. It has been estimated that as many as 75% were born in the United States and were, thus, American citizens. Some dispute exists as to the origins of the name Heart Mountain. Some contend that it is an English translation of an Indian name. Others contend that the name was a mispelling by John Colter who passed through the area of the name of an early trapper or military officer named Hart.
 Town of Powell and Irrigation, approx 1909. Reclamation Service Photo. As perhap suggested by the above photos, Powell was made possible by irrigation. As discussed with regard to the Buffalo Bill Dam on the Cody Road pages, in 1902 President Roosevelt signed the Reclamation Act which provided for governmental financing of large scale irrigation projects. Roosevelt in his 1913 An Autobiography explained the purpose of the Act: On June 17, 1902, the Reclamation Act was passed. It set aside the proceeds of the disposal of public lands for the purpose of reclaiming the waste areas of the arid West by irrigating lands otherwise worthless, and thus creating new homes upon the land. The money so appropriated was to be repaid to the Government by the settlers, and to be used again as a revolving fund continuously available for the work.  John Wesley Powell,
photo courtesy of the Library of Congress
Roosevelt observed that the first to propose such irrigation in the West was
John Wesley Powell:
While I had lived in the West I had come to realize the vital need of
irrigation to the country, and I had been both amused and irritated by the
attitude of Eastern men who obtained from Congress grants of National money
to develop harbors and yet fought the use of the Nation's power to develop
the irrigation work of the West. Major John Wesley Powell, the explorer of
the Grand Caņon, and Director of the Geological Survey, was the first man
who fought for irrigation, and he lived to see the Reclamation Act passed
and construction actually begun.Ninety-seven days following passage of the Act, the old Civil War major breathed his last. His old friend Alexander Graham Bell rushed from Nova Scotia to be at Powell's side, but arrived too late. In many of its features, the Reclamation Act tracked the original proposals made by Major Powell in his 1879 Report on the lands of the arid region of the United States, with a more detailed account of the lands of Utah: If the irrigable lands are to be sold, it should be in quantities to suit purchasers, and but one condition should be imposed, namely, that the lands should be actually irrigated before the title is transferred to the purchaser. This method would provide for the redemption of these lands by irrigation through the employment of capital. If these lands are to be reserved for actual settlers, in small quantities, to provide homes for poor men, on the principle involved in the homestead laws, a general law should be enacted under which a number of persons would be able to organize and settle on irrigable districts, and establish their own rules and regulations for the use of the water and subdivision of the lands, but in obedience to the general provisions of the law.Thus, in Powell, Wyoming, John Wesley Powell's dream was fullfilled. A self-governing irrigation district was formed, settlers came to homestead small farms of eighty acres with the water rights as appurtenant to the land.
 Powell, Wyoming, approx. 1909. At first it was proposed to call the new townsite just north of the Shonshone River "Colter" after the early mountain man and veteran of the Corps of Discovery, but it was discovered that the name had already been applied to a railroad siding in Washakie County south of Worland. Thus, the townsite was named after John Wesley Powell whose foresight brought about large scale irrigations projects. Colter is, however, honored in the name of Colter Ave., US 14A, paralleling the Garland Canal.
 Powell, Wyoming, 1909.
The
town was incorporated in 1909 and became a part of newly-formed Park County upon its
formation in 1911.
 Powell, Wyoming, 1912. By 1919, most the the claims by settlers had been proven up and conveyances of farms on the Powell Flats north and west of the town had been completed.
 Powell, Wyoming, 1920's. Next page: Powell continued, Earl Durand, Heart Mountain Relocation Camp, Teruo "Ted" Fujioka |
