The Waters Testify

"THE WATERS TESTIFY" By Dr. John A. Widtsoe, of the Council of the Twelve Consideration has been given, recently, to the possibility of con- structing, with the aid of the United States Bureau of Reclamation, irrigation works to reclaim, or to irrigate more completely, the lands in the Great Salt Lake Basin. The study has confirmed from yet another view the remarkable inspiration that led the Latter-day Saints to settle in the valleys of the Rocky Mountains. It is well known that the Prophet Joseph Smith, several years before his death, looked toward the Rocky Mountains as a place of peaceful settlement for his people. The prophecy of 1842, declaring that the Latter-day Saints would go to the Rocky Mountains and there become a mighty people, is ample evidence of the purpose of the Saints to migrate westward. The prophet's associates testify that he frequently spoke of the valleys of the West as a harbor of peace and safety for his people. Brigham Young declared: "In the days of Joseph, we have sat many hours at a time conversing about this very country. Joseph has often said, 'If I were only in the Rocky Mountains with a hundred faithful men, I would then be happy, and ask no odds of mobocrats." (Journal of Discourses, 11 :16.) However, at that time, the West was still an unexplored wilder- ness, known chiefly from the highly imaginative and inaccurate re- ports of trappers and fur-traders. Methods of communcation were slow and toilsome. News traveled by tortuous roads. The interior of Africa is as well known today as the Great West was in the days of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Yet, the leaders were firmly convinced that the destiny of their people would lead them into the great Western wilderness, and that they would there become a mighty people. When at last the forced exodus from Nauvoo, Illinois, began, which resulted in the settlement by the shore of the Great Salt Lake, the people, or at least the leaders, were as well informed as could be from available sources, concerning the great West. They were intel- ligent people, and did things in an intelligent and orderly manner. Nevertheless, even with the knowledge that they had picked up, the West was as a hidden country. They were going, they knew not where. Brigham Young said: "Seven years ago today, about eleven o'clock, I crossed the Missis- sippi River, with my brethren, for this place, not knowing at that time, whither we were going, but firmly believing that the Lord had in reserve for us a good place in the mountains, and that he would lead us directly to it. It is but seven years since we left Nauvoo, and we are now ready to build another temple. I look back upon our labors with pleasure." — (Journal of Discourses 1:279.). "They assassinated Joseph Smith, and

THE WATERS TESTIFY 109 they drove us into the mountains, where, as they said, 'the land is sterile and good for nothing,' and where the Indians would kill us, as they believed with all their hearts. They said and believed this, and prophesied day and night that the 'Mormons' were going, and would be starved to death or killed by Indians. We came here naked and barefoot; do you think that I shall ask any aid from them, when we are ready to go back? No. We brought our provisions, when we came here, to last us until we raised more. We brought our few farming implements, our seed grain, wives, and children, with comparative nakedness and poverty as to this world's goods. My wives took skins and made moccasins to wear." — (Journal of Discourses 8:230.) The knowledge of the West won by trappers, traders and explor- ers had not established any confidence in the Western country for purposes of settlement. The Pacific seaboard seemed to be fertile, with a congenial climate, but the intermountain country appeared sterile of soil, harsh of climate, and repelling as an abiding place for man. The leaders of the people realized all this, and Brigham Young at one time volunteered an explanation of the settlement of an apparently inhospitable place: "I cannot help being here. We might have gone to Vancouver's Island; and if we had, we should probably have been driven away or used up before this time. But here we are in the valleys of the mountains, where the Lord directed me to lead the people. The brethren who are in foreign countries desire to gather to the gathering-place of the Saints, and they have for the present to come to Great Salt Lake City. They cannot help that. Why did we not go to San Francisco? Because the Lord told me not: 'For there are lions in the way, and they will devour the lambs, if you take them there.' Why, instead of being merchants, instead of going to St. Louis to buy goods we can go down to our Dixie land, the southern part of our Territory, and raise cotton and manufacture goods for ourselves." — (Journal of Discourses 9:105.) President Young always declared that divine, not human, wisdom had led him and the people to the valley of the Great Salt Lake. When the pioneers were near to the Great Salt Lake valley, they were warned against the unfruitful nature of the country which they intended to occupy. Col. James Bridger met the pioneer company near the Little Sandy. The Colonel had scouted, trapped, and traded among the Rocky Mountains since about 1824. No person was better posted in Western lore. This veteran pleaded with Brigham Young not to settle in the Great Salt Lake Valley, for he feared that food for the people could not be produced there. He pointed out other more favorable locations for settlement. Let Brigham Young tell a part of the story: "Until the Latter-day Saints came here, not a person among all the mountaineers and those who had traveled here, so far as we could learn, believed that an ear of corn would ripen in these valleys. We know that corn and wheat produce abundantly here, and we know that we have an excellent region wherein to raise cattle, horses, and every other kind of domestic animal that we need. We also knew this when we came here thirteen

110 IMPROVEMENT ERA years ago this summer. Bridger said to me: Mr. Young, I would give a thousand dollars, if I knew that an ear of corn could be ripened in these mountains. I have been here twenty years, and have tried it in vain, over and over again.' I told him if he would wait a year or two we would show him what could be done. A man named Wells, living with Miles Goodyear, where now is Ogden City, had a few beans growing, and carried water from the river in a pail to irrigate them." — (Journal of Discourses 8:288.) In the face of such disheartening reports, President Young, guided as he declared by inspiration, settled in the very place against which he had been warned. His faith was sublime: "Sixteen years ago, when we were camped upon this temple block, I told the people that there existed, in the elements around us in these moun- tain regions, wheat, corn, rye, oats, barley, flax, hemp, silk and every element for producing the necessary articles used by man for food, raiment and shel- ter. We breathe it in the atmosphere, drink it in the water, dig it when we dig in the earth, and walk over it when we walk. Here are the elements for every cereal, vegetable and fruit, and for every textile material that grows in the same latitude and altitude in any part of the world. No country in the world will yield more and a greater variety of the products of life than will portions of this mountain country." — (Journal of Discourses 10:201.) Every word in this prophecy has been fulfilled. The climate has been found healthful, and the soil among the most productive in the world. From the first, irrigation was resorted to as a means of supplying crops with water. This had been foreseen, for the rainless summers of the West had been reported by the travelers over the Western deserts. The fame of the "Mormon" pioneers, as the founders and builders of modern irrigation, has spread over the earth. Looking backward, in 1847, it seems that the greatest chance that the pioneers took, was after all on the water supply. If there were not enough water in the streams, the area of development would be small. Irrigation was known to be necessary in the West; the volume of the water supply was not known; it was conceded that in the Salt Lake Valley the streams were small. In view of all this, the recent study of the proposed Great Salt Lake Basin irrigation project is a remarkable confirmation of the wisdom of the unseen Power that guided the Latter-day Saints into the Great Salt Lake Valley, and impelled them to settle there. The pro- posed Great Salt Lake Basin irrigation project extends from the north end of Cache valley to the south end of Utah valley, and includes the irrigable lands of the ten following counties: Cache, Box Elder, Weber, Davis, Salt Lake, Utah, Tooele, Wasatch, Summit and Morgan. In the lower seven counties there are 897,097 acres of ir- rigable land, of which 44% or 389,697 acres are not irrigated. The first concern of the project is of course the water supply. Records of the stream-flow into these valleys have been kept for many years by the U. S. Geological Survey. When these were tabulated it was

THE WATERS TESTIFY 111 shown that ample water flows into Cache Valley and the higher lying valleys to irrigate all the irrigable lands of these valleys. This was expected. It was, however, something of a surprise to find that the water that flows annually into the lower lying valleys, from Collinston, Box Elder county, to Payson, Utah county, is sufficient, could it be conserved for use on the land, to irrigate all the irrigable land to a depth of 4.4 feet, or about twice as much as is needed under a perfected system of irrigation. The valleys in which Brigham Young estab- lished the first settlements of his people, in opposition to the best worldly wisdom of the day, not only have been shown to possess climate and soil to permit the growth of all the ordinary crops, but also a water supply, which, if properly conserved, will irrigate all of the irrigable lands and leave a surplus to be taken some day into more distant places, now considered as hopelessly, barren. President Young seems to have realized this for he said: "I do not know that I have prayed for rain since I have been in these valleys until this year, during which I believe that I have prayed two or three times for rain, and then with a faint heart, for there is plenty of water flowing down these canyons in crystal streams as pure as the breezes of Zion, and it is our business to use them." — (Journal of Discourses 3:331.) The problem of the proposed irrigation project is to store the waters that now are wasted chiefly in flood season into the Great Salt Lake. The building of storage reservoirs to save the flood- waters and to hold the water of a wet year for use in a dry year will mark the next onward irrigation step of the place in which modern American irrigation began. This is not a new thought. The pioneers had the vision of the future. Brigham Young speaks again: "If we had time, we should build several reservoirs to save the waters of City Creek, each one to contain enough for once irrigating one third of the city. If we had such reservoirs the whole of this city might be irrigated with water that now runs to waste. Even then we do not intend to cease our improvements, for we expect that part of the Weber will be brought to Hot Springs, there to meet the waters from the south and empty into Jordan. Then we contemplate that Bear River will be taken out at the gates to irrigate a rich and extensive region on its left bank, and also upon the other side to meet the waters of the Malad. We know not the end of our public labors and enterprises in this Territory, and we design performing them as fast as we can."- — (Journal of Discourses 3:329-330.) The question with respect to possible storage is an important one in the planning of the Great Salt Lake Basin project. Studies made by competent experts show that reservoirs now exist capable of storing 357,797 acre feet of water, and that there are reservoir sites sufficient to store another 945,290 acre feet, or a total of 1,303,087 acre feet, Morever, and of equal importance, these valleys have two tremendous natural reservoirs in which water may be stored at low cost. The largest of these, Bear Lake, will undoubtedly be developed for irrigation purposes within a few years. The other, Utah Lake, which should be

112 IMPROVEMENT ERA developed at once, may by proper diking be made to store more than half a million acre feet of water, at a low cost; and at the same time several thousand acres of land now submerged may be reclaimed. The storage possibilities within the proposed project are ample for the needs of the lands, and furnish an additional evidence of the wisdom of the Power that guided the pioneers. The geographical distribution of the water within the Great Salt Lake Basin furnishes an interesting and important problem for the builders of the proposed project. More water, proportionately, flows into the north than into the south end of the project. For example, the water flowing into Utah valley, if all conserved, would cover the irrigable lands of that valley to a depth of 2.6 feet, but some of that water is needed by Salt Lake and Tooele counties. Into Weber county, on the other hand, enough water flows to cover the irrigable lands to a depth of 8 feet. Clearly, therefore, a problem of the pro- posed project is to move the available water from the north to the south, so that a more uniform distribution of water may be secured for the lands. It is proposed to accomplish this by diverting water from the higher reaches of the Weber River, across Kamas bench, into the Provo River, and by carrying water from the mouth of the Weber by long canals southward into Davis county. Ultimately, therefore, the waters from Utah Lake will be brought northward, and from Weber River southward, to meet in Salt Lake City — thus the lands will be uniformly served. The lands north of Ogden will be served with water from the Bear River at Collinston or above, and from the Ogden River. These are not new ideas but the simple fulfilment of the vision of the pioneers. President Young said: "The River Jordan will be brought out and made to flow through a substantial canal to Great Salt Lake City." — (Journal of Discourses 11:116.) "In behalf of the people that live here, and of more that would like to come here, had you more water, I will state that I am fully satisfied that a portion of Weber River can be brought above this place, and thousands of acres of good land rendered susceptible of cultivation. "Davis county is the best county I know of for fruits and grain. Per- haps some who live in Salt Lake county may think differently, but in my opinion this is one of the best counties in the Territory for raising grain, and I would like to see the brethren bringing out the waters of Weber River. It will require a good deal of labor, but it does not require money. And if you do not get the water around the sand ridge the first year, you need not be discouraged, but continue the labor as you may be able, until the ditch is made wide enough and long enough, and sufficiently tight by a deposit of sediment or by puddling, to convey all the water that may be required. I think it can be brought around the sand ridge without a great deal of extra labor or expense." — (Journal of Discourses 10:307.) The garden that may be made, when this project is completed, from Preston, Idaho, to Santaquin, Utah, and probably far beyond, will add greatly to the wealth of the people. It is estimated that on the basis of the present acre yield ($62.80) the additional annual

THE WATERS TESTIFY 113 value of the farm products under this project will be more than $20,000,000. However, building upon our long experience, we shall improve our methods, and accomplish more than we can foresee today. The following wise counsel from Brigham Young, the founder of modern irrigation, embodies principles which must be applied in modern-day irrigation: "When water is brought to the termination of the canal, which we can accomplish in a few days, I presume that the reservoirs on the line of work and those portions which are excavated in full will contain water enough to allow the people to irrigate when necessary, and thus do away with the practice of watering only two hours a week on a city lot, and much of that to be done at night. And that is not all, for by the time the water is fairly on a lot it is taken by the next person whose right it is to use it. And lots which have had thousands of dollars expended on them, and which would yield more than a thousand dollars worth of fruit and vegetables, could they be properly irrigated, are only allowed a small stream of water for two hours once a week, and at the same time an adjoining lot planted with corn, the hills six feet apart and one stalk in a hill, comparatively speaking, the balance of the ground covered with weeds, is allotted the same time and amount of water as the one on which fruit trees and other choice vegetation are worth thousands of dollars. "There ought to be a reformation in the distribution of water. The man who will not raise five dollars worth of produce on his lot, has the same water privilege as the man who could raise a thousand dollars worth. For instance, Brother Staines gets the water for two hours a week, and what are his fruit trees worth? He could make his thousand dollars a year from them, if he were disposed to sell the fruit instead of giving it away, could he have a fair portion of water. I have a lot just below him well cultivated in fruit trees, a nursery, and choice vegetables, I also can only have the water on my lot for two hours in a week; when lots near by with little on them except weeds, get the same water privilege, and that, too, in the day time, while we have to use it in the night. Water masters ought to look to this matter, until they have arranged a more just distribution." — (Journal of Discourses 3: 328-329.) The irrigation projects built by the government, have found dif- ficulty in repaying the costs of construction. The Great Salt Lake Basin project stands out today as the most promising of all remaining irrigation projects in the West. There is no question about the possi- bility of making successful the project to be built upon the foundations laid by Brigham Young in the Great Salt Lake Basin. Thus, even the waters testify to the divine guidance of the pio- neers into the heart of the Great American Desert. As a Watered Garden "Hear the word of the Lord, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd does his flock. * * * Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the Lord, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all." — Jer. 31:10, 12.