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Buford -Trenton Project
State: North Dakota
Region: Great Plains
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Buford -Trenton Project History (56 KB)
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General
The Buford-Trenton Project lands lie along the north bank of the Missouri River adjoining the towns of Buford and Trenton, North Dakota. The Great Northern Railroad parallels the project and is roughly the north boundary of the development area. Water is supplied to 10,671 acres of irrigable land by pumping directly from the Missouri River into a main canal and laterals. No storage facilities are required.
History
Irrigation possibilities in the project area were recognized as early as 1902. The Reclamation Service initiated a pumping project in 1907 to irrigate benchlands at a higher elevation than those in the present project. This early project, also known as the Buford-Trenton Project pumped water from the Missouri River with electrical energy obtained from the Reclamation powerplant at Williston. Poor soil qualities in the lands to be irrigated and a series of wet years caused the landowners in the area to lose interest in irrigation and the project was discontinued.
Construction
The Bureau of Reclamation constructed the irrigation and drainage system in 1940-1943. The Department of Agriculture supervised the land preparation, settlement, and agricultural planning. Labor was supplied by the Works Projects Administration, the Civilian Conservation Corps, and the Civilian Public Service. Principal crops produced are sugar beets, alfalfa, wheat, barley, oats, and pasture. The project has a stabilizing influence on the livestock industry in the area through the production of feed crops. For years, tumbleweeds rolled across the desolate reaches of North Dakota, clogging an old irrigation ditch. The ditch was part of an early effort by the Bureau of Reclamation to irrigate lands near the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers. Substantial rainfall caused local farmers to lose interest in irrigation. Some thirty years later, Reclamation was back, trying to resuscitate the fortunes of dryland farmers, who had fallen on hard times. The Buford-Trenton Project is located in northwest North Dakota along the Montana border, in Williams County. The project lies along the MissouriRiver, just east of the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers and stretches for twelve miles, southwest to northeast, between the towns of Buford and Trenton. Along their southern perimeter, project lands hug three large bends in the north bank of the Missouri River, as it flows east. Between these bends lie the principal farming units of the project: the `West`, `Middle`, and `East Bottoms`. Two natural creeks on the project flow into the Missouri. Eight Mile Creek stretches across the northern portion of the Middle Bottom, while Painted Woods Creek meanders across the East Bottom. From the Missouri bottomlands, the project reaches north for three miles until it runs into the Great Northern Railroad line, built on the plain above the project. Williston, the largest town in Williams County, is four miles east of the project. Altogether, the project irrigates 7,655 acres of land, on thirty farms. There is no dam on the project. Water is obtained directly from the Missouri River. Facilities include 11.5 miles of canals, 34 miles of laterals, 31.6 miles of drains, and one pumping plant.(1) North Dakota straddles the 100th meridian, and comprises 69,300 square miles of mostly semi-arid land. Some 635,000 persons lived there in 1991, ranking the state 47th in population. On average, less than ten people live in each square mile of Dakota's often desolate land; in far western Williams County, the figure is slightly higher. In 1986, many of the county's 26,000 residents lived on 971 farms, and by 1990, the population had declined by almost 5,000 residents, to 21,129. Most farms were over 1,000 acres, and the vast majority were not irrigated.(2) Moving west from the flatlands found in the eastern part of the state, increasingly rolling lands rise in elevation to near 4,000 feet, losing moisture with every mile. Precipitation averages 14.5 inches a year in Williams County, and temperatures are extreme, ranging from -50 to 110 degrees. The growing season of the county averages 131 days, much of it taking place during the long daylight of northern latitude's spring and summer. Snow has fallen during every month of the year except July and August, although the amount is minimal compared with similar locations of the United States. The wind in North Dakota has always been an inescapable fact of life, blowing dust across the prairies, and piling up huge drifts of winter snow. Recurring drought plagued the state-in 1885 and 1886, again in 1894, 1900, 1910, and during the `dirty thirties`, from 1931 to 1936.(3) It appears that North Dakota was settled both by Indians and whites out of necessity, not choice. The Mandans had crossed into the Dakotas around 1300, followed by the largest of the Native American groups in the region, the Sioux, or Dakota, between 1500 and 1700. Both of these groups gradually moved along the rich bottomlands of the Missouri River, and stronger tribes forced both groups to leave their eastern woodlands homeland. The Dakota adopted a highly nomadic lifestyle in the 18th century, relying on the horse and buffalo for their existence. In 1805, Lewis and Clark camped at the site which would later become Fort Union. Located 1/2 mile west of the present Buford-Trenton Project, Fort Union served as a major trading post on the Missouri River from 1828 until 1867. Beginning in 1864, the federal government had attempted to control the more hostile Sioux people by erecting a series of military posts along the Missouri River, including Fort Buford. Following the Civil War, in 1868, the western and eastern branches of the Sioux nation accepted the reality of living on reservations. Quickly, the eastern part of North Dakota along the Red River was settled. With the Northern Pacific Railroad's crossing of the Red River in 1872, settlers filtered into the western portion of the state. By the latter 19th century, the Mandan, Sioux, and other northern plains tribes including the Hidatsa, Arikara, Cree, and Crow, had succumbed to voracious epidemics, encroachment of their lands, and destruction of their food source.(4) In the mid-1870's, Brevet Major General William Hazen had become outraged when land speculators in the Dakotas gave what he considered highly fictionalized accounts of western North Dakota to Harper's New Monthly Magazine. Hazen, at the time, was commander of Fort Buford, which encompassed present Buford-Trenton Project lands. Hazen considered the land west of the 100th meridian as worthless-even with irrigation. Responding to Hazen's comments, Colonel George Custer, stationed at Fort Abraham Lincoln near Bismarck, saw much promise in the land. The Hazen-Custer debate was a microcosm of the larger debate over whether the Great Plains region was desert or garden. The debate was largely academic because settlement of northern and western North Dakota had already begun.(5) John Wesley Powell, no stranger to the irrigation debate, followed up his famous 1878 arid lands report by visiting many of the areas he mentioned. In 1889, Powell addressed the Constitutional Convention in Bismarck, North Dakota. Powell suggested that the western part of the state should take advantage of river irrigation to insure an adequate water supply in times of drought.(6) Sixteen years later, Theodore Roosevelt, approved a $3 million project on the lower Yellowstone, of which almost 20,000 acres were in western North Dakota. Roosevelt was no stranger to the region. He had tested his ranching mettle at Medora, a few miles south of present-day Buford-Trenton. The Dakota lands included in the Yellowstone project were called `Prosperous Valley`, and produced grain, vegetables, and forage crops, but primarily sugar beets. Unfortunately, the cost of irrigation was so high that only a small portion of the project was irrigated.(7) On November 18, 1904, the original Buford-Trenton Project was authorized by the Secretary of the Interior.(8) Reclamation specifications in 1905 called for the building of a main canal, a series of turnouts and culverts, a siphon, and several flumes. Pumping machinery was to include two pumping stations, one on a floating barge, and the other in a concrete building along the shore of the Missouri River. Designs called for irrigation of some 11,000 acres.(9) Early Reclamation attempts to irrigate the area near Buford-Trenton met with limited success. Reclamation began accepting bids for irrigation construction in September, 1906.(10) The original Reclamation project irrigated different land than does the present project. The first project irrigated benchlands at a higher elevation through a five-mile long irrigation ditch and pipeline which moved water from the Missouri River directly into the irrigation system. Electricity for the project came from a lignite powered steam plant in Williston. The project was operated intermittently until 1912. As early as 1908, with only 38% of the project completed, work ceased and the government property was left in the hands of a `caretaker.`(11)The Reclamation Record of October, 1913 reported that no water had been furnished for two seasons, and `crops were extremely light`.(12) A combination of factors led to the abandonment of the original project. Inferior soils and high pumping costs contributed to the project's demise. Furthermore, settlers became indifferent to the methods of irrigation farming as a succession of years with good rainfall made dry farming successful.(13) By 1929, the year of the great stock market crash on Wall Street, North Dakota was starting to experience the prophecies of John Wesley Powell. Half a century before, Powell warned Dakotans and others that periodic drought was a fact of life in the arid west. If farmers failed to store water for irrigation during such dry spells, they would be sorry. Several years of inadequate moisture, excessive heat, and ever present winds caused dust storms starting in 1934. Valuable topsoil blew away, and massive clouds of dust swept across the prairie. The year 1936 was the hottest, the coldest, and the driest year on record. North Dakotans, like their biblical counterparts, began leaving the state for promised lands further west, especially in California. While dust storms swept the Great Plains during the `dirty thirties`, swarms of grasshoppers destroyed millions of bushels of wheat. Western North Dakota was especially hard hit. In some plains towns, grasshoppers were so thick that streetlights had to be turned on at midday; in others, bonfires were built to destroy the pests as they moved along streets packed four inches thick with the insects.(14) North Dakota was particularly hard hit. The state's per capita income remained less than half that of the national average throughout the thirties. One third of North Dakota farmers lost their property by foreclosure. Relief rolls swelled. In some western counties, more than 70% of the people received some sort of government aid. A mass exodus from farm lands in the western part of the state occurred. Some farmers flocked to urban centers like Fargo, Grand Forks, Bismarck, or Minot to find work and subsistence. Others simply gave up on North Dakota and moved away.(15)On the Great Plains as a whole, from 1930 to 1939, 501 of the 650 counties comprising the region lost 150,000 families, and an aggregate population of 753,554.(16) According to the earliest Buford-Trenton reports, some 60,000 acres straddling the Great Northern rail line lost significant population in the 1930's. The area, which included project lands, contained a total of 27 persons in 1940, where once families lived on every quarter section.(17)Project Authorization To address problems on the Great Plains, President Franklin Roosevelt created a Great Plains Committee in 1936 made up of representatives from Reclamation, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Department of Agriculture, and the Works Progress Administration. The committee recommended various allocations to revitalize projects in the west hurt by depression and drought. Of these allocations, $630,000 was recommended for construction on the Buford-Trenton Project, the first of a number of irrigation projects in the dust bowl of the Great Plains.(18) After two years of political wrangling by congressmen and decision making by the Great Plains Committee, Roosevelt sent Congress on June 14, 1938, a supplemental estimate of appropriations for fiscal year 1939. $5,000,000 was allocated for the construction of water conservation and utilization projects on the Great Plains and other arid and semi-arid lands. The ensuing legislation, the Interior Department Appropriations Act of 1940, was supplemented by the Wheeler-Case Act, of 1939, of which Buford-Trenton was a part.(19) Wheeler-Case was a cooperative effort of Reclamation and the Agriculture Department. Agriculture's Farm Security Administration (FSA) participated in project planning and preparation of the land. This included levelling the land, building and maintaining drains and small irrigation ditches, and constructing homes and farm buildings prior to settling the area with families.(20) During the first week of November, 1939, field parties began making topographic surveys for the project. By the end of the year, 11 miles of survey were completed and the Farm Security Administration began acquiring land and property by option.(21)Soil surveys and early Reclamation studies determined that 13,400 acres of land were suitable for irrigated settlement under the project.(22)To this end, the Farm Security Administration began developing and settling the project. FSA planned to settle 95 families on the project in addition to those already there. FSA leveled the entire area to be irrigated, and built five or six-room houses and outbuildings on 135 separate farm units.(23)In 1941, FSA added acreage reclaimed through brush removal, bringing the total irrigable acreage to 14,800 acres.(24) In April, 1940, the Works Progress Administration proposal for labor on the project was approved, and by May 6, 37 WPA workers began building a warehouse and construction facilities a quarter-mile north of Trenton Lake at Trenton, North Dakota. The construction camp was next to the Great Northern rail siding and was well equipped with rooms for tools, cement storage, a field office, and machine, carpenter, and blacksmith shops. Workers built transport truck bodies to carry men from Williston to the worksite. By September of 1940, 340 men, including supervisors and laborers, were working on the project. A higher percentage of skilled labor was hired for Buford-Trenton than was normally required on WPA projects, and a number of equipment operators, carpenters, blacksmiths and welders were hired. The majority of WPA workers were familiar with the work required on an irrigation project, as most had worked on the Lewis and Clark Project, a state project west of Williston.(25) An oxbow lake at the far northeast quadrant of the project, Trenton Lake was just west of the proposed WPA campsite. Work on the 100 man camp did not begin until May 27, 1940, three weeks after work on construction facilities began. By June 10, the work camp was in full operation, with a 30'x 60'mess tent, twenty-two 12'x 14' sleeping tents, and a water and sewage system.(26) On July 23, installation of a gravel processing plant a quarter-mile southeast of the WPA camp began. It would provide gravel for concrete. On August 9, a `a screw type washer` was purchased and placed in operation to remove silt, clay, and coal deposits from the gravel. Excavation and building of some 383 concrete structures on the main canal and lateral system began in the summer of 1940.(27) Over its long history, the Missouri River has changed course and flood plain numerous times. The main canal was built on an escarpment jutting up against the former north bank of the Missouri River. Across this bench of land, the canal had a base of 12 feet, and held about 6 feet of water moving at 2 ft./second. The canal stretched east for almost 12 miles, from a pumping station at the western edge of project lands. When the canal reached the area around Trenton Lake, twelve miles away at the eastern edge of the project, it had to be elevated 23 feet above the lake's surface. Using two flumes and a drainage crossing, Reclamation made such adjustments to avoid ancient channels in the escarpment, and the `Trenton Cut`, an area laden with gravel and subject to seepage. Forms for turnouts and other concrete canal features were built in the nearby Trenton shops, and placed in positions across the project.(28) Six laterals were built on project lands, two for each of the three bottoms located between the large bends in the Missouri River. Lateral A snaked its way almost parallel to the river for several miles until it branched into three coils in the West Bottom. Lateral B was much shorter, jutting into the bottom for perhaps a mile. Lateral C followed the north bank of the Missouri for almost its entire length in the Middle Bottom, while Lateral D followed a straight line due east into the heart of this 2nd bottom. In the East Bottom, Lateral E dropped southeast off the main canal for 2 miles before following the Missouri, and hooking northwest into the center of project lands. Lateral F, starting at the end of the main canal at Trenton, followed the Great Northern Railroad for two miles on its way to Williston.(29)Some areas near Trenton Lake or close to the Missouri River had to be lined with concrete or clay to prevent the land in between from becoming saturated. The vast majority of canals and laterals, however, were excavated in natural earth. Project engineers experienced some difficulty in locating a proper site for the pumping plant. Judging from the terrain and old maps detailing the river bed, the engineers realized the Missouri's banks had changed location several times. Consequently, the location selected had to be stable, where little erosion was likely to occur. The north bank of the Missouri, above the Yellowstone was selected. In addition, the original plans for the pumping plant called for a concete structure with wooden pilings driven into clay and sand. Eleven feet down, workers hit an artesian flow and the original site was abandoned. In response, reclamation relocated the pumping plant 65 feet inland on a man-made channel. The new designs called for a wooden building to be set on a 2 foot concrete slab. The building and slab were placed on 35, 16" square x 55' long concrete pillars. Electricity was generated by the Montana-Dakota Utilities Company and suppoied to the pumps through a 5-mile transmission line from near Nohle Montana.(30) Beginning in 1941, the Buford-Trenton Project began to suffer from a labor shortage. In January of 1941, 245 WPA workers were on the payroll. By September, 122 WPA workers were employed, and numbers were dwindling. The reason for the shortage was twofold. Unusually heavy rainfall led to successful harvests in the early 1940's and enticed potential WPA labor to go back onto the area's farms. High crop production was encouraged by United States entry into World War II. Secondly, many WPA workers left the area to join the armed forces or to secure employment in the defense industry.(31) The rainfall that over Williams County combined with strengthened markets seemed to herald better times. Increased farm income stimulated business, payment of debts, and land sales. For the first time in years, the conditions requiring relief programs improved. In 1942, Williston led the state in the percentage of business increase over 1941. The Federal Land Bank recorded record sales of 180 farms and payment in full of 184 loans. Schools were debt-free for the first time in several years. Farmers harvested bumper crops of alfalfa, barley, corn, flax, hay, oats, potatoes, rye, spring and durham wheat. All local WPA relief projects were shut down except for Buford-Trenton. Reclamation lost not only WPA forces, but also the newly occupied Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp, BR-97. A small conscientious objector camp supplied some labor after the United Stated entered the war, but numbers were apparently minimal. Project histories of the time attest not only to the concern over the loss of labor, but to efforts to conserve oil, gas, repair parts, and tires for the war effort.(32) Because of the war effort and the consequent loss of labor, the Buford-Trenton Project was not completed until 1943, a year later than expected. In September, 1942, the Buford-Trenton Mutual Aid Corporation was established. It was a non-profit organization established for leasing the federally owned project lands and operating the irrigation system. In July, 1943, the corporation signed a lease contract with the Department of Agriculture. The corporation then began to release the lands to interested farmers. Because their work was completed in 1943, Reclamation transferred jurisdiction of the project over to the Department of Agriculture in January, 1944. That year marked the first full delivery of irrigation water.(33)
Plan
Water for the project is pumped from the Missouri River at a point about 1.5 miles above its confluence with the Yellowstone River. The plant has three pumps, each having a capacity of 80 cubic feet per second and an average lift of 29 feet. The pumps discharge into the main canal, which is 11.5 miles long and has an initial capacity of 250 cubic feet per second. The canal is unlined except for a 2-mile section of clay lining around Trenton Lake. The distribution and drainage systems include 34 miles of laterals and 31.6 miles of drains. Operation and maintenance of the irrigation system is by the Buford-Trenton Irrigation District. On January 28, 1955, the district assumed full management responsibilities from the Buford-Trenton Mutual Aid Corp.
Other
Gannoway, Robert. Board Member, Buford-Trenton Irrigation District, July 15, 1993.
Contact
Contact
Title: Area Office ManagerOrganization: Dakotas Area Office
Address: PO Box 1017
City: Bismarck, ND 58501
Fax: 701-250-4326
Phone: 701-250-4242
Contact
Title: Public Affairs OfficerOrganization: Great Plains Region
Address: 2021 4th Avenue North
City: Billings, MT 59101
Fax: 406-247-7604
Phone: 406-247-7610
Contact
Organization: Buford-Trenton Irrigation DistrictAddress: PO Box 27
City: Trenton, ND 58853
Phone: 701-572-3530
Contact
Organization: East Valley Mutual Aid Co-op AssociationAddress: RR 3, Box 32 B
City: Williston, ND 58801
Phone: 701-572-8972