Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

92 ENGINEERING WONDERS OF THE WORLD. TRUCKEE DAM AND CANAL, NEVADA. United States of voting age, upon payment of 25 cents per acre, and the filing of a declara- tion under oath of an intention to reclaim a tract of desert land not exceeding 640 acres by conducting water thereon within a period of three years, could enter such land for his own use and benefit. It was further provided that, at any time within the period of three years, the entryman, upon submitting satis- factory proof of the reclamation of the land, and upon the payment of $1 per acre, would receive a patent from the Government. In 1891 this law was modified in several important essentials, and made applicable to additional territory. Under the provisions of this law, the larger part of the lands now irrigated in the West were reclaimed. As a rule the irrigation works were constructed by in- dividuals, and were inexpensive and simple. As administered, the measure has often been a vehicle for fraud, and many thousands of acres were illegally patented'. For several years efforts to repeal the law have been made, but thus far have failed. In 1894 it was recognized that the oppor- tunities for reclamation by individual settlers no longer existed, and the Carey Act was enacted by Congress to en- courage States and Corpora- The^Carey tions to take up some of the larger engineering works. This law permitted each of the arid States to select a million acres for irrigation by any means they might choose to adopt, and allowed them to create a lien upon these lands for the purpose of securing their reclamation. Although the law was liberal in its provisions, no extensive action was taken by any of the States to secure its