Complexity in a Ditch: Bringing Water to the Idaho Desert

Water–or the lack of it–has profoundly shaped the settlement patterns, economic development, and political dynamics of the arid American West. On Idaho’s Snake River Plain, the irrigation process has been particularly complex, influenced by local and national politics as well as geographic geography and technology. Throughout two decades, decisions surrounding water use shaped the state’s settlement patterns, economic development, and political dynamics. Author Hugh T. Lovin researched and published insightful articles on the topic in a wide array of scholarly journals. These selected essays offer a thorough examination of the transformation and controversy related to the region’s irrigation.Encouraged by the Carey Act of 1894, settlers flocked to the Idaho desert. Bureau agents and speculators followed. Lovin explores their efforts to farm, promote, and irrigate, covering successes and failures of key players. He discusses related federal policies, the New West reclamation tragedy near Twin Falls, the King Hill project, the fight to divert Yellowstone water, and more. Idaho historian Adam Sowards’ valuable introduction sets Lovin’s work in context and concludes, “No one knows irrigation better than Hugh Lovin, and the essays included here are gems of historical research.