rm of the law, the Desert Lands Act, applied to arid land. In order to take ownership, settlers had to "demonstrate proof of irrigation." Unfortunately, in many instances this was quite difficult to accomplish. While the close-knit Mormon societies had been able to irrigate valleys in Utah, few other locations had constant streams or were flat enough to enable Desert Lands Act compliance (42).
Following the Civil War, John Wesley Powell was among the first to examine the West's water problems. Although he had lost an arm at the Battle of Shiloh, the ex-major explored the Colorado River and surrounding lands. He wrote that the Homestead Acts were "blind to reality (45)." A 160-acre unirrigated western farm was to small, and an irrigated 160-acre farm was too big. Powell noted that a farmer could subsist on 80 irrigated acres. This observation may have motivated him to formulate his own irrigation plans (46). It wasn't until the droughts of the late 1800s, however, that the government got involved in irrigation. Eventually, these plans led to a several decades of "rampage dam-building and irrigation development."
The federal irrigation movement began with the Wright Act. This statute established self-governing mini-states, called irrigation districts. The sole function of the mini-states was to deliver water to barren land. Problems soon arose though: the districts' bonds wouldn't sell, their reservoirs wouldn't fill, and they often allocated water unfairly. Wyoming's state engineer, Elwood C. Mead, called the Wright act "a disgrace to any self-governing people (109)."
Then, in 1902, the Reclamation Act was passed. On a political level, this law was practically a "flirtation with socialism." However, as people continued to move westward, the American West had to be irrigated. The large scale projects that were needed could only be expedited through massive government involvement (113).
The Reclamation A...