Just below the mouth of Whalen canyon, and about eight miles up the river from the site of old Fort Laramie, is a diversion dam of concrete 325 feet long with an extreme height of 35 feet, and from the south end of the concrete extends an earthen embankment 2,000 feet long with a maximum height of 18 feet. This check raises the water of the river about 13 feet. The interstate canal heads here with a capacity of 1,400 cubic feet of water per second, and at the forty-fifth mile the capacity is 1,200 cubic feet of water per second. The total length of the canal will be about 150 miles, terminating 15 miles east of where the Burlington road crosses the river at Bridgeport, and will water a total of some over 200,000 acres. The first three sections of the canal, about 125 miles, are now completed. Near the present end of the canal are two large natural reservoir sites in which is stored the waters for the third section. The first section of the canal lies entirely in Wyoming and is an enlargement of the W;halen Falls canal which waters some 30,000 acres under the Gary Act.

The government maintains the main canal and laterals of the system. Farm units were made with the intention of giving each homesteader eighty acres of land, but the area varies greatly depending on the quality of the land and the nearness to present markets. The size of the actual farm with the amount of irrigable land varies from forty to one hundred acres.