Image provided by: Deschutes County Historical Society; Bend, OR
About The Deschutes echo. (Bend, Or.) 1902-19?? | View Entire Issue (Feb. 27, 1904)
♦ *♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦*• »«♦»«♦♦»»»#» *» *♦ SOM E NEW COM PANY S T A R T S W ORK. D. I. & P. C o . M a k i n g P r e p a r a t i o n s F o r S e c o n d F lu m e . The Deschutes Irrigation and Power Company is very busy this week getting into shape for oper ation on a large scale. R. F. Guerin the secretary and treasurer was in town looking over the ground and left on Thursday for the general offices of the company at Portland. Engineer Smith has a surveying crew on the desert working over the territory not in cluded in the P. B. D. Co. segre gation which the Desihutes Co. has selected. T h e T . B. D. Co.’s selection ran about a mile north of the stage road on the west side of the old river bed and crossing the river bed took in a tract north of it, the outer line of which ran three mile north of the river bed and paralleled with it. The new company intends to take water from a higher level and plans a ditch running higher up and upon this work Engineer Smith and his crew are now engaged. The con struction work is under the charge of Engineer Kelly and the small flume started by the P. B. D. Co. is now completed. Work on the connecting ditch is going rapidly forward. The large flume to take water from the river at Lytle will be begun March 25, a very early date considering the preparation necessary to start the work. The new company has a large ship ment of implements and tool* com ing from Portland and the con dition of the roads to Shaniko pre P I C T O R IA L cludes quick freighting. The P. B. D. Co. made a straight sale of all its irrigation interests to the new company and A. M. Drake has no stock or interest in the Des chutes Irrigation and Power Com pany. The Oregonian stated last week that A. M. Drake held an in terest in the present project but this is not a fact. The Oregonian’s interview was probably given out by Drake and was of the usual color. The P. B. D. Co.’s president is trying to let himself down as easy as possible. The hnmiliation of his irrigation fiasco is too great to be taken in a single dose. S a w e d off t h e T i m b e r H e W a s S i t tin g O n. Acting Land Commissioner Fimple has written the Lakeview land office not to make any further rejections on account of mistakes heretofore made in filing and prov ing up outside of the Lakeview dis trict, but to await legislation by congress to cure the defect. The matter is be’ng actively taken up by the Oregon delegation and it now seems moderately certain that an act will be passed allowing patents to issue on the proofs and tilings already made without put ting claimants to further trouble and expense. The practice of filing and prov ing up outside of the district in which the land lies bad existed for some years and no question had ever been raised ae to its legality. Tbe convenience and saving was great and patents were issued on H IS T O R Y such filings and proofs just the same as on any others. A great part of the work was done at Prine- ville but the U. S. commissioner at Bend did a fair share of it. The present commissioner, Lawrence, believed that Prineville and Silver Lake commissioners should not be allowed to take filings or proofs on land near Bend and wrote to the Lakeview office setting forth his claim. The Lakeview officials for warded this letter to the general land office for their views and the department ruled that no filings or proofs on land in the Lakeview district could legally be made at Bend or Prineville. On this ruling the Lakeview officials were obliged to rule unfavorably on all such fil ings and proofs until the late or ders to cease pending curative leg islation for the benefit of claimants. Whether any trouble with such filings and proofs would have oc curred had not Lawrence raised the question is of course uncertain, but Lawrence reached for too much and took nothing, in other words the Bend commissioner sawed off' the limb he was sitting on. The first announcement that all filings and proofs taken outside of the district in which tbe lands were situated were illegal, was a shock to the large number of claimants who were caught out but at present there is little cause for worry. Since the ruling which Lawrence caused the l \ S. commissioner’s office at Bend is not a very re- numerative one and little is left in it except the title and honor. OF B END . S e ttle rs W a n t W ater. . Residents of Haystack held a meeting this week to consider wavs and means of securing water for irrigation for that section. The Haystack country has a large amount of productive land and raises good crops without irri gation hut its productiveness would be greatly enhanced by a supply of water. It would, how ever, require a very long ditch and considerable fhnning to bring watsr to that vicinity. The meet ing discussed the question of ask ing government aid. There are a large number of settlers in that section of land ; it would be a wise move on their part to try to have the Deschutes Irrigation and Pow er Company extend one of its ditches into the country. If the expense of the undertaking prove« too great for private enterprise, a bonus might be obtained from the government to assist tbe project. The irrigation of ihe Haystack country would he a boon to Crook county. T h e W o r l d ’S F a i r R o u t e . choice of either going direct through Kansas City, or via Wichita, Fort Scott and Pleasant Hill. Two trains dailv from Denver and Pueblo to St. Louis without change, carrying all classes of modern equipment, including elec tric lighted observttion parlor cafe dining cars. Ten daily trains be tween Kansas City and St. Louis. Write, or call on W. C McBride, General Agent, 124 Third street, Portland, for detailed information and illustrated literature. D e m o c ra tic County Central m lt t o e . Com - The Democratic County Central Committee for Crook county is hereby called to meet at the court house in Prineville, Oregon, on March 5, 1004, at 2 p. m. for the purpose of issuing a call for a county convention, and the trans action of such other business as may comè before tbe committee, The following are the preeinct members entitled to a vote at this meeting : K S Price....... j w Roblnion W H Milliorn d W Noble W H Slam* J W Will H arry Hudson John Sahmeer A H Hailey....... Sam Douthft C T LI Hurd It P arrish........ J B Marrlll C B Allen K T Slayton Dd Kntfdn r . Prineville Precinct \sh wood Bear Creek Beaver Crock " Bend Black B utte " Bret.«* Camp Creek •* C herry Cre«*k “ CfftM Keys '• Hardin " Hay Creek H hj stack . Ireland " Johnson Creek " K fitch or Those anticipating an Eastern trip, nr a visit to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis, cannot afford to overlook the ad vantages affered by the Missouri M a u ry Pacific Railway, which, on account K W Wrn W H Nelson BrnwYtson MeKay “ Birdsong Mill Creek of its various routes and gateways, Heorea Hudson Montgomer “ Newsoru has been appropriately named W i K J Curl Wrlfrht How ard Ed Merritt S um mit '• “The World's Fair Route.” Win Jo i l t n ....... Willow Greek Passengers from the Northwest L. N. L w nW r, take the Missouri Pacific trains M. R. B ig g s , CbaiQ na» Sesrstary. from Denver or Puebla, with the