New York Canal

Completion of the Oregon Short Line Railroad in the early 1880s made possible the construction of farming settlements in the Boise Valley. In 1882, investors from New York founded the Idaho Mining and Irrigation Company in order to transform the desert into farmland between the Boise River and the Snake River in southern Idaho Territory.{{cite news |title=Boise's vast irrigation network took time, money, expertise |author=Arthur Hart |newspaper=Idaho Statesman |location=Boise, Idaho |date=November 25, 2017}} Investors hoped that the company could also begin mining operations in the region, financed by revenue from irrigation canals.

Mining engineer Arthur De Wint Foote commenced a survey of the Boise Valley in 1883, and he envisioned a {{convert|75|mi|round=5|adj=on}} canal that would draw water from the south side of the Boise River and irrigate {{convert|500000|acre|mi2 km2|-1}} of desert through 5,000 lateral ditches. The main canal became known as the New York Canal, in deference to eastern investors.{{cite book |title=Idaho, a Bicentennial History |url=https://archive.org/details/idahobicentennia00pete |url-access=registration |author=Frank Ross Peterson |publisher=W.W. Norton & Co. |date=1976 |page=[https://archive.org/details/idahobicentennia00pete/page/125 125-128]}} It was not the first irrigation system in the Boise Valley; in 1878, William H. Ridenbaugh began construction of the Ridenbaugh Canal from the north side of the Boise River, and smaller projects had existed beginning in the 1860s.{{cite news |title=Ridenbaugh Canal Provides Water for Fertile Lands of the Boise Bench |newspaper=Evening Capital News |location=Boise, Idaho |date=January 1, 1913 |page=5 |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88056024/1913-01-01/ed-1/seq-69/ |accessdate=February 28, 2019}}

In the 1880s, work on the New York Canal focused mainly on the Foote survey and on acquiring water rights. The Idaho Mining and Irrigation Company began construction near the Boise River Canyon, about {{convert|10|mi|spell=in}} upstream and east of downtown Boise; work required moving boulders and cutting rock. The difficulty of work partially accounted for slow progress on the canal, but another factor was the Depression of 1882–85, and some eastern investors had been forced to divest their holdings in the company. Arthur Foote continued to work with little pay, and the company allowed only a minimum construction effort, this to retain its water rights.{{cite book |title=The Foote House (10-AA-96), An Historic Archaeological Complex in the Boise River Canyon, Idaho |author1=Ruthann Knudson |author2=Timothy W. Jones |author3=Robert Lee Sappington |publisher=University of Idaho |date=1982 |page=[https://archive.org/details/DTIC_ADA124498/page/n32 12]-13 |url=https://archive.org/details/DTIC_ADA124498 |accessdate=February 28, 2019}}

In 1888, the Idaho Statesman objected to claims that the New York Canal would be completed that year. The newspaper found that "maps and profiles" were the only work finished, and the editor projected that the canal would require 500 workers over five years before it was completed.{{cite news |title=That Pamphlet |newspaper=Idaho Statesman |location=Boise, Idaho |date=June 14, 1888 |page=2}} In 1889, Idaho Mining and Irrigation Company manager Charles H. Tompkins Jr., estimated that the canal would be {{convert|70|mi|spell=in}} in length and irrigate about {{convert|350,000|acre|mi2 km2}}, with an estimated capacity of {{convert|2915|cuft}} per second, but he admitted that only {{convert|2|mi|0|spell=in}} of the canal had been completed. Another Boise River project undertaken by the company, the Phyllis Canal, named for investors from Philadelphia, also had completed about two miles.{{cite news |title=Irrigation |newspaper=Idaho Statesman |location=Boise, Idaho |date=August 23, 1889 |page=1}} The Phyllis Canal later became part of the New York Canal system.{{cite book |title=The Pacific Reporter |publisher=West Publishing Co. |location=St. Paul, MN |volume=51 |date=1898 |pages=990–992 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M2O5HcAqk3EC&pg=PA991 |accessdate=February 28, 2019}}

In 1890, the company secured investment capital of $300,000 to complete work on the canal. The general contractor was Denver railroad builder William C. Bradbury, and the company believed the canal would be finished in 1891.{{cite news |title=The New York Canal |newspaper=Idaho Statesman |location=Boise, Idaho |date=November 25, 1890 |page=1}} By September, 1890, 220 workers were employed, and the company advertised employment for 1000 workers. But progress on the canal continued into 1892, when work stopped because of disagreements between investors; work resumed in 1893.{{cite news |title=Early Boise-area canal building, selling was vital and turbulent |author=Arthur Hart |newspaper=Idaho Statesman |location=Boise, Idaho |date=December 3, 2017}}{{cite news |title=Notice to Contractors |newspaper=Idaho Statesman |location=Boise, Idaho |date=March 9, 1890 |page=3}}

The Idaho Mining and Irrigation Company became insolvent in 1891, and contractor Bradbury filed a lien against the company that year.{{cite news |title=W.E. Borah, the well known attorney... |newspaper=Idaho Statesman |location=Boise, Idaho |date=May 14, 1933 |page=14}} Bradbury continued construction on the canal, apparently financed by his own money. He purchased the canal, right of way, and water rights in a sheriff's auction in 1894. Bradbury later sold the uncompleted canal to the Farmers' Canal Company, an association of about 175 local farmers, in 1896.{{cite book |title=The Lawyers' Reports Annotated |volume=40 |publisher=Lawyers' Co-operative Publishing Co. |location=Rochester, NY |date=1905 |page=486 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kCY8AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA486 |accessdate=February 28, 2019}}

The United States Congress created the U.S. Reclamation Service in 1902, and the bureau gained control of the New York Canal project.{{cite web |title=Canals & Irrigation |publisher=Digital Atlas of Idaho |url=https://digitalatlas.cose.isu.edu/hydr/cnlsirr/cnlfr.htm |accessdate=February 28, 2019 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20190301161119/https://digitalatlas.cose.isu.edu/hydr/cnlsirr/cnlfr.htm |archive-date=March 1, 2019 |url-status=live }} After trimming several miles from the former design and completing construction of the canal and diversion dam, the bureau opened the New York Canal on February 22, 1909.{{cite news |title=Power Behind the Dam |newspaper=Idaho Statesman |location=Boise, Idaho |date=February 23, 1909 |page=4}} The canal was enlarged by 1912, and it was placed under control of the Boise Project in 1926.

• List of canals in the United States
• Carey Act

{{Reflist}}

• {{Commons category-inline}}
• [http://www.nyid.org/ New York Irrigation District]
• [https://www.usbr.gov/projects/index.php?id=338 Boise Project], [https://www.usbr.gov/ Bureau of Reclamation]
• Anne Wallace Allen, [https://web.archive.org/web/20181025151642/https://idahobusinessreview.com/2016/05/23/a-hardy-pair-of-early-idahoans/ A hardy pair of early Idahoans], Arthur and Mary Hallock Foote (Idaho Business Review, May 23, 2016)

{{Authority control}}

Category:Geography of Ada County, Idaho

Category:Geography of Canyon County, Idaho

Category:Boise Project

Category:1909 establishments in Idaho

Category:Canals in Idaho