Controlling the Crooked River: Changing Environments and Water Uses in Irrigated Central Oregon, 1913-1988

Abstract

SCOTT B. COHEN Controlling the Crooked River Changing Environments and Water Uses in Irrigated Central Oregony 1913-1988 LIKEMUCH OF THE AMERICAN WEST, thevalue ofwater topeople living in Central Oregon's Crooked River Basin cannot be overstated. All of the basin s inhabitants, from the first people who roamed Oregon's high plateau to thosewho attempted to settle there (ifnot permanently, then long enough tomake improvements and sell out), recognized rivers and streams as the arteries of life.1 Where therewas no water, therewere no people. The Crooked River Basin's history isdefined not only by its semi-arid landscape but also by human transformations of thewaterways that traverse it. Dams, storage reservoirs, canals, and pumping plants as well as acts of drainage, channelization, and biological management characterize theCrooked River and its tributaries today. It is at the intersection of those changes, where human ingenuity and nature meet, that the dynamism of the river's his tory is revealed. When Central Oregonians turned to dams and irrigation, the changes they expected in both human and natural communities were not always what they got, and that unexpectedness is typical in the area's environmental history. During the early-twentieth century, a large influx of new settlers came toCentral Oregon. As more people poured into the area, irrigation became indispensable for ranchers who could no longer graze cattle openly through out the region and for homesteaders who were attempting to farm in the arid climate. But when those ranchers and farmers (and, later, the federal Reclamation Bureau) set out to impound the river and its tributaries, they proved unable topredict or control all thatwas different in the newly created environment. That new environment sparked changes in how people used 204 OHQ vol. 109, no. 2 2008 Oregon Historical Society Bowman Dam, built by theReclamation Bureau and completed in 1961,created Prineville Reservoir and generated developments in therecreation industry and in fish and wildlifemanagement thatarea residentshad not expected. water, and those changes prompted Oregonians to reevaluate theCrooked River and its role inCentral Oregon's culture and economy, an examination that continues today. In 1961, theReclamation Bureau finished work on themain phase of the federal Crooked River Project, which included a 240-foot earthen dam and irrigation works for twenty thousand acres of land. Congress had autho rized the project for irrigation and flood control purposes, but the new environment itcreated ? particularly the Prineville Reservoir, behind the dam ? quickly prompted a new demand forwater that proved completely unforeseen by the Reclamation Bureau, irrigators, and the area's political and economic leaders. The impounded river spawned tourism, recreation, and retirement industries, which opened theway for a variety of users, not simply irrigators, to lay claim to the river.Those unexpected consequences Cohen, Controlling theCrooked River 205 of damming the river caused tension among irrigators, area leaders, and in stream recreational and wildlife users who allwanted access to, and control of, thebasin's most valuable commodity. Much of theCrooked River Basin's development has been and will be determined by how Oregonians choose to value the area's most limited resource. While many Oregonians worked in concert to secure authorization and funding for theCrooked River Proj ect, the new environment it created spawned drastically different visions for the basin's future.During the latterhalf of the twentieth century, those visions clashed in political battles over water use that took center stage in the Crooked River Basin. The Crooked River Project is small compared tomajor federal dams like Grand Coulee and Bonneville, but its story is significant because itso clearly demonstrates several important aspects of water history in theAmerican West: an early misunderstanding of water resources and river hydrology that led towater and economic scarcity; the instrumental role local water users played in determining water policy; the relationship between western water projects and federal politics; and, most significantly, the changing uses? from out-of-stream irrigation to in-stream recreational and fish and wildlife uses ? forwhich water isvalued by those living in the West. The Crooked River's history brings all of these themes into view, allowing us to better understand how they functioned locally and nationally. LYING INTHE RAIN SHADOW of theCascade Range, theCrooked River Basin...