Photo of the Day-- Construction of Strawberry Highline Canal in Payson

STRAWBERRY  HIGHLINE  CANAL 

The photo above shows the construction of the Strawberry Highline Canal in the Payson area.
    When the Mormon pioneers entered the present state of Utah in 1847, they found an arid and uninviting land in the Great Basin.  The first settlers were soon sent to settle other parts of the region to settle and create new communities.  The settlers tended to settle in areas where water was available from streams that flowed from the nearby mountains.  They began to farm tracts of land where they could divert water from the nearby rivers and streams.
    Utah Valley is located at the eastern edge of the Great Basin Desert.  Most of the land in the valley was very dry and ill-suited for agriculture without irrigation.  As the population of the valley grew,  the need for more irrigated farm land increased.  The settlers in Payson used water from Peteetneet Creek that flowed out of Payson Canyon. 
    By 1860, the settlers began diverting water from the Spanish Fork River and some of the smaller streams.  The water only supplied sufficient water during the runoff months, but when the levels dropped, it only supplied water for only about 12,000 acres of farmland.  When there was heavy snowfall there was usually enough water to irrigate about 30,000 acres.
    As a result of the extremely limited water supply, only a small percentage of land in Utah Valley could be farmed with any certainty of adequate water during the entire growing season. Continuing population increases in Utah Valley, and the lack of sufficient water for arable lands, the need for supplemental water from storage facilities became apparent long before 1900. Utah Valley desperately needed reliable sources of water
    Around the turn of the century, Utah State Senator Henry Gardner and John S. Lewis, visited Strawberry Valley, in Wasatch County, on a camping trip. During the trip they developed an idea for a reservoir in the valley, and a system to transport water through the Wasatch Divide, that separated the Colorado Basin from the Great Basin. Officials of the Spanish Fork East Bench Irrigation and Manufacturing Company investigated the project and in August of 1902, filed for reservoir purposes on the Strawberry River, and for power purposes on the Spanish Fork River.
    In City Council minutes of 1902 the idea of storing water in Strawberry Valley was noted.  In 1904, a committee was appointed to study the feasability of such a project.  The committee was composed of Dr. A. L. Curtis, Dr. L. N. Ellsworth, Arthur Daley, Jonathon S. Page Jr. and John Dixon.  They contacted Senator Reed Smoot to help forwarding the idea through Congress.
    After a thorough study and investigation, the Strawberry Valley Project received approval on December 15, 1905.   provided that: conflicts of water rights claims were resolved; enough acreage was secured for irrigation to reimburse Reclamation on the cost of construction; "and that a clean-cut feasible reclamation project, free from all complications of any kind or character be secured before a dollar is spent on construction.  A special clause in the Reclamation Act of 1902 allowed the Utahans in Utah Valley to pool enough land to receive project approval. The clause allowed residence "in the neighborhood" instead of residence on the land, as required by the Reclamation Act. The provision was inserted in the act especially for Utah projects because of the settlement pattern of Utah farming towns, in which many farmers did not live on their farm land.
    In November 1907 government officials met with the Payson City Council and discussed the possibility of furnishing electric power from the hydro-electric plant that had been built at the mouth of Spanish Fork Canyon.  The plant had been constructed for the purpose of furnishing power for the machinery that was being used to complete the Strawberry Tunnel that would bring water from Strawberry Valley to Utah Valley.
    On May 26--27, 1916 there was a huge celebration held in Payson to celebrate the completion of the Orem Railroad and the Strawberry Irrigation Project.   The Strawberry Project brought 60,000 acres of new farmland between Spanish Fork and Goshen under cultivation.  The land values went up and there were many new crops that were planted.