Landowners React

The number of acres bought for the reservoir from the property owners ranged from 2 acres to 1,346 acres. The amount paid varied from $12 to over $20 per acre. The smallest amount received was $150 and the largest $34,936. Some of the land owners moved to higher grounds and relinquished their property (by 1906) but a number held out for higher prices and did not complete the sale until 1921 long after the reservoir was filled and in use.

In some cases it was necessary to start litigation against the land owners and one man, D.E. Burley, took his case to the United State Supreme Court, where the court upheld the constitutionality of the Reclamation Act. He finally sold at a lesser price than he was originally offered.

There were homesteaders who just gave up and moved away from the Flat. Henry and Daisy Vinson were two of the many who abandoned their farms. The Vinsons--married in 1894--had a homestead there and ironically had "eventually reliniquished this homestead because they couldn't get any water on it."

Waiting "in the wings" so to speak, for three or four years, were the homsteaders who had attained water rights. Their land surrounded the Deer Flat Area.

Preparing for the water they cleared their land, made as many improvements as they could on limited finances--

And waited...notice that this man is hauling water in barrels behind a saddle horse--a mighty slow process.

Some settlers worked where they could for a dollar a day.

They got their water from the Snake River and later from wells; one of the three earliest wells was on Meade Provo's place in Huston community.