Engineering in the Progressive Era: A New Look at Frederick Haynes Newell and the U.S. Reclamation Service

Abstract

Engineering in the Progressive Era: A New Look at Frederick Haynes Newell and the U.S. Reclamation Service DONALD C. JACKSON The passage of the national irrigation law was one of the great steps not only in the forward progress of the United States but of all mankind. [Theodore Roosevelt, 1903]1 The cumulative effect of the barrage of favorable publicity for reclamation has been the conditioning of the public mind to an unquestioning acceptance . . . that federal reclamation is a great and unmixed good, and that it is the major if not the exclusive factor in irrigated agriculture. [Stanley Davison, 1952]2 The American West constitutes an environment well suited to transformation through the agency of technology. As Walter Prescott Webb illustrated in his classic 1931 book The Great Plains, the expanse of America lying west of the ninety-eighth meridian (a line running through the center of Kansas) is largely defined by the lack of precipitation.3 Water is a key factor in the economic and social development of the arid region, and water control technologies are Dr. Jackson is assistant professor of history at Lafayette College. He gratefully acknowledges comments from Donald J. Pisani, Jack Cell, and several Technology and Culture referees that helped make this a better article. Some of the research underlying the article was completed as part of a contract between FraserDESIGN and the Bureau of Reclamation for documentation of historic resources affected by the Central Arizona Project; however, the opinions expressed are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views of FraserDESIGN, the Bureau of Reclamation, or any agency employees. 'Telegram from Theodore Roosevelt to National Irrigation Congress, September 15, 1903, reprinted in F. H. Newell, comp., Proceedings ofthe First Conference of Engineers of the Reclamation Service (Washington, D.C., 1904), p. 121.¿Stanley Davison, The Leadership of the Reclamation Movement, 1875—1902 (New York, 1979), pp. 32-33 (reprint of Ph.D. diss., University of California, 1952). ’Walter Prescott Webb, The Great Plains (Boston, 1931), pp. 3-44.© 1993 by the Society for the History of Technology. All rights reserved. 0040-165X/93/3403-0004$01.00 539 540 Donald C. Jackson especially important because moisture is not evenly distributed over the landscape in either density or seasonality.4 Torrential downpours might dump millions of gallons of water on the desert, but these storms can be spaced years apart during periods of severe drought. Most rivers depend on melting snowpack rather than rainfall to sustain their flow, and westerners have long recognized the impor­ tance of storage dams in capturing both torrential floods and spring “runoff” from snowcapped mountains.0 Without dams, huge quanti­ ties of flood waters can be lost. If stored behind artificial barriers, however, this water can support sustained growth of agriculture, industry (e.g., mining and hydroelectric power), and municipalities.6 Of these, irrigated agriculture (often called reclamation) historically constitutes the most widespread use of water in the West.7 Although irrigation in the West predates the era of European settlement, it started a new phase in 1847 when Mormon pioneers began diverting small creeks onto desert land near Utah’s Great Salt Lake.8 Other Anglo groups followed the Mormons and soon estab- ’Extensive references on western water history are provided in Lawrence B. Lee, Reclaiming the American West: An Historiography and Guide (Santa Barbara, Calif., 1980). Also see Donald J. Pisani, “Deep and Troubled Waters: A New Field of Western History,” New Mexico Historical Review 63 (October 1988): 311-31; and Lawrence B. Lee, “Water Resource History: A New Field of Historiography?” Pacific Historical Review 57 (November 1988): 457—67. Notable recent books in the field include William L. Kahrl, Water and Power: The Conflict over Los Angeles’ Water Supply in the Owens Valley (Berkeley, 1982); Donald J. Pisani, From the Family Farm to Agribusiness: The Irrigation Crusade in California and the West, 1859-1931 (Berkeley, 1984); James Earl Sherow, Watering the Valley: Development along the High Plains ofthe Arkansas River (Topeka, Kans., 1990); Norris Hundley, The Great Thirst: Californians and Water, 1770s-1990s (Berkeley, 1992); and Donald J. Pisani, To Reclaim a Divided West: Water, Law, and Public Policy, 1848-1902 (Albuquerque, N.M...