Siskiyou
County
Biographies
MONTAGUE WATER
CONSERVATION DISTRICT
The
irrigation of the Shasta Valley near Montague, Siskiyou County, California was
begun in 1913, when the Shasta River Water Association was incorporated and
several thousand acres of land were purchased by Dr. G. W. Dwinnell, who in
association with A. L. Harlow, installed a pumping plant to take water from
Shasta River and lift it an average of eighty-six feet by electric power. The next year another pumping project was
promoted by Messrs. Dwinnell and Harlow, under the name of the Big Springs
Water Company, six miles east of Grenada.
The land was subdivided and sold in small tracts to dairymen who have
been almost invariably successful. The
Grenada Irrigation District was later formed, following in 1926 by the Montague
Irrigation District, which is now being settled and where farm lands may be
procured at most reasonable terms.
Irrigated land in the settled irrigation districts sells for from one
hundred and twenty-five to two hundred and fifty dollars an acre, with water
charges higher than in the new district, while superior land in the new
district may be purchased for from fifty to one hundred dollars per acre. We quote an article which was published in
the Shasta Valley Echo and Dairy News of January 20, 1928: “Thirty-five years ago a doctor came to
Siskiyou County, California. This may
seem a strange way in which to introduce the subject of the Montague Water
Conservation District, yet it is the correct way. This doctor came to the then frontier group
of false front wooden structures, by courtesy named Montague, and here,
impelled by something in the atmosphere, in the view of, or guided by some
sixth sense, he elected to stay. Soon
after, he was met at all hours of the day and night on his errands of
healing. Month by month the professional
orbit of Dr. George Dwinnell increased in circumference while, in like measure,
his knowledge of the country increased.
Every cattle ranch, every farm house, every road and creek and cut-off
became known to him—every family, almost, came to know him, and he in turn came
to know how, and why, so many were able to live in a section where the rain
gods refused to give the land enough water with which to farm. The Doctor rode over thousands of acres of
fertile soil used as cattle range only, while, here and there, small parcels of
land yielded in abundance. Why could not
of these thousands of acres produce equally with the small parcels where his
patients and friends dwelt? Wherever
springs flowed or small streams ran, there lay the little farms—the other thousands
of acres went untilled for lack of water to produce crops.
“Lack of water! And only a short distance away water in
abundance tumbled its way down through forested slopes from snows still higher
in altitude, then into the Shasta River and away toward the Pacific Ocean, with
no use of it to make the fertile, but too dry, lands of Shasta Valley give
forth of their fertility for the benefit of man. These things the Doctor saw—and because he
was no sentimental idealist, but a practical man of ideals, he invested his
money, earned in Shasta Valley, in land in Shasta Valley—he developed small
amounts of water, planted alfalfa and made more money. By both practice and precept,
he pioneered the way. Slowly at first,
but surely, the more substantial people of the valley came to see what the
Doctor had seen and out of the community of interest and spirit thus engendered
Montague Water Conservation District was born.
“Read
what Dr. Elwood Mead, who needs no introduction, said at a meeting of the
international irrigation congress a few years ago: ‘One of the most gratifying experiences I
have had since my return (from Australia) is, however, to find in California an
exhibition of its old and lovely spirit of hospitality to the stranger within
its gates and the demonstration of the feasibility of organized aid and
direction in settlement. It owes its
existence not to the conscience and wisdom of the public but to the sagacity
and humanity of an individual. The
pioneer in scientific land settlement in California is Dr. George Dwinnell of
Siskiyou County.’ Later Dr. Mead writes: ‘If it were not that the work you are doing
has a social importance so great that the public ought to have full knowledge
of it, I would not feel justified in calling on you for this information; but,
as it is, I feel that the work you are doing for a few people in a restricted
area is going to blaze a trail all over the western third of this continent in
a short time’—and finally, on July 18, 1927, Dr. Mead again writes: ‘Some day there will have to be a monument
erected to you, rewarding you for your fine, unselfish service to that country;
and when that happens I want to contribute a stone or two.’
“The
late Georgia Graves Bordwell, writing in Sunset Magazine said: ‘Dr. Dwinnell made money out of the Montague
project. He sold at a time when
ninety-five per cent of the far west’s real estate men were not able to find
buyers for farm lands. And he was able
to sell at a reasonable profit because he helped the buyers dig the purchase
price out of the soil.’ Further on in
the same article this writer touched the key-note upon which the initial
success of the Montague project is founded.
She says: ‘I had heard about John
Ballestin in Montague but I wanted to hear what he
himself had to say. This is what he
said: “Oh, no, I no got a verra good house. Nex’ year I maka new house for my wife, you betcha. My wife she work purty
hard, she getta new house to live in til he die. Oh, yes,
my cows he purty good, my
hay he good, too. Verra
good luck in America, but you know that Doc, yes? That Doc, my verra
good frien’; I lika heem,” and his black eyes melted into soft brown as he
said: “That Doc, he just helpa me like hell, by gosh, you betcha.”
’
“And
now, let Dr. George W. Dwinnell, president of the Montague Water Conservation District, tell what the district has to offer the practical,
industrious dairyman. He says: ‘Our climate is very healthful. We have no malaria. Elevation twenty-five
hundred feet. Summer days are
warm, nights cool. Cold spells occur in
winter but they are never extremely severe and they seldom last longer than a
few days at a time. Milch cows are
turned out of doors every night during the year. Our annual average rainfall, less than
fourteen inches, occurs mainly in winter.
“ ’We have two main types of soil. One was made by deposit from an old ocean
formation that lies on the east and west of the valley. This type of soil has a good percentage of
lime and is especially adapted to alfalfa.
The second type is a heavier soil excellently adapted to potatoes, sugar
beets and alfalfa. None of the soil is
acid.
“
’Our water rights are approved by the state division of water rights, the state
engineering department and the state bond certification commission. The water possessed under these rights is
stored in a reservoir of seventy thousand acre feet capacity located on the
Shasta River, and it flows by gravity from the reservoir to the land. The estimated cost of water is between five
and six dollars an acre, annually, until the bonds are paid; after which time
the cost will be about one dollar an acre.
Good domestic water is obtainable at an average depth of twenty-five
feet. “ ’This
is a natural alfalfa country. Land never
needs the application of lime. Four
crops of alfalfa are grown each season where irrigation is practiced. One planting lasts many years. Annual production is from three and one-half
to six tons depending upon the soil and the care taken in irrigating. Forty acres will produce feed for the entire
year for from twenty to thirty-five cows.
All pasture, hay and other forage crops have a high feeding value. Beef are fattened for market on alfalfa hay
and pasture usually; no grain or other concentrates are fed. On this feed, cream checks average from one
hundred dollars to one hundred and fifty dollars per cow per annum. Hogs fed on skim milk are a source of profit
to our dairymen.
“ ’This county has many sawmills, box and sash and door
factories, and gold mines, making a large local market for butter, cheese and
ice cream. The creamery at Montague is
paying at present (October 25, 1927) fifty-five cents a pound for butter fat,
allowing the dairyman to keep the skim milk; the Kraft cheese factory is paying
sixty cents a pound for the cream in the whole milk. Last year California imported twenty-nine
million pounds of butter and nearly twenty-three million pounds of cheese. Produced here at home, this would keep busy
one hundred and eighty thousand additional cows each giving six thousand pounds
of milk annually. The lowest price
butter fat sold for at our local creamery during the summer of 1927 was
forty-five cents per pound for sour cream and forty-seven cents for sweet
cream. All of our surplus dairy products
find a ready and profitable market within the state and the more we can produce
the greater our ratio of profit will be.
“ ’Two of the largest pine lumber sawmills in the world are
located in this county. Many smaller
lumber mills are also being operated.
No. 1 and No. 2 common lumber can be purchased locally at from twenty
dollars to thirty dollars per thousand feet.
This low cost for good substantial lumber makes building costs lower
than in many less favored sections.
“ ’Within two hours drive from Montague are very fine
hunting and fishing grounds. Hundreds of
deer are killed every year and quail, duck and goose hunting are favorite
sports. Klamath River, one of the
world’s famous trout and salmon fishing streams, is fifteen miles away. Mountain trout are in all the smaller
streams.
“
’Montague is on the main line of the Southern Pacific Railroad, midway between
San Francisco and Portland, Oregon.
Mount Shasta, from which the railroad route takes its name, lies to the
southeast and is a never-failing source of water, derived from its fields of
perpetual snow. Mount Shasta is,
equally, a source of beauty which never grows less and never palls on the
observer. The Pacific Ocean is reached
after a beautiful and interesting trip of one hundred and twenty miles through
our giant Redwoods. Surrounding the
District are forests of pine and fir—Crater Lake in Oregon, wonderful hot
springs and ice caves, are all within easy traveling distance by auto stages or
train. A population of five million
people to the south and of two million more to the north, scatter through many
large cities and hundreds of smaller thriving communities, offer every outlet
which can be desired along social, economic and educational channels.
“ ’Forty acres is the favorite size for a diary farm. At present, our dairy farmers of this size
are producing incomes of from twenty-five hundred dollars to forty-five hundred
dollars a year. Land here can be bought
for what it will produce in one year, as soon as the dairy is established. The land now being planted to alfalfa, before
irrigation, was used for growing grain.
Also, usually it was owned in large tracts. Before the bond commission certified the
bonds of the District, they asked that the land owners sign an agreement not to
ask more than seventy-five dollars and acre.
This was done to prevent land selling booms which usually interfere with
orderly agricultural progress and so entail losses to both buyers and sellers. Land can be bought for this price now.’
“A
staff correspondent of the ‘Country Gentleman’ wrote as follows of Siskiyou
County and Shasta Valley: ‘I have neither
kith, kin nor friends in Siskiyou . . . I simply nosed my way around and asked
questions, feasted my eyes on scenery, drank into my lungs tonic ozone that set
all the bubbles in my blood dancing a breakdown. The best looking dairy herds and the best
looking hogs that crossed my line of vision in California I saw in Siskiyou. I confess I didn’t go over into Humboldt
County on the coast, and there were several other counties that I skipped, but
I did look around in Siskiyou and I sure did like what I saw—livestock, fruit,
grain, truck, nut, folks . . . Before making any purchase, I would suggest,
though, to those who have the opportunity—go in and look around.’
“Finally,
Dr. Dwinnell says: ‘We like to have
folks drop in on us—we are eager to have them see what Shasta Valley and
Siskiyou County have to offer sober industrious husbandmen and their families. Out latchstrings are always out to them and
on behalf of the Shasta Valley Chamber of Commerce, or Montague District, and
our citizens, I extend to all such people a cordial invitation to visit us—we
will try to interest them buy they will not be importuned to buy.” ‘
Dr.
Elwood Mead, quoted above, whom Dr. Dwinnell
characterizes as “one of the greatest settlement engineers of all time,” is at
present commissioner of the United States Reclamation Service and is now
building the Hoover Dam at Boulder Canyon.
Dr. Dwinnell is personally acquainted with President Hoover and his
friends are legion.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
Wooldridge, J.W.Major History of Sacramento Valley
California, Vol. 2 Pages 448-452. Pioneer Historical
Publishing Co. Chicago 1931.
© 2010 Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's Siskiyou County
Biographies