Purchasing Land

The Reclamation Service purchased a valley five miles south of Caldwell. It was a natural basin that homesteaders had already started to settle.

By the construction of two earth filled dams, now known as the upper embankment and the lower embankment, the valley was turned into a large reservoir from which the water would flow out into Canyon County and onto the Wilder Bench. Work on the reservoir stared in 1905 with a survey to determine its boundaries.

Old-timers may remember the names of the some of the landowners listed here: Marshall McAdoo, Herman Brandt, William Hasbrouck, Charles S. Smith, R.E. Green, Daniel Gott, Charles H. Harris, William and Mary Ridenbaugh, A.F. Isham, and School District No. 17.

Ernest Gibbons who sold his borrow pit at the north end of the reservoir for use in building the embankments. The school district left its building in the Flat to be covered by water.