Shareholders must be owners (or homesteaders) of land capable of being watered from the Interstate Canal, and the water stock becomes a part of and attached to the land and can thereafter be conveyed only by conveying title to the land Each stockholder will be allowed to hold as many shares of stock as acres of land, but must not exceed a total of 160 shares. The shareholder must also be a resident of the neighborhood, which is accepted as meaning a limit of fifty miles. This applies alike to homesteaders and holders of deeded land. Those holding more than the prescribed 160 acres must dispose of the excess before water can be had for any.

Irrigation in Morrile County

The irrigable lands contiguous to Bridgeport are in two projects -- the Northport irrigation district (called the "Bridgeport unit" by the government reclamation officials), which lies on the north side of the Platte river, and the Bridgeport irrigation district, which lies on the south side. These two districts are separate and distinct, and each is in itself a large irrigation project.

The Bridgeport irrigation district embraces about 15,000 acres of first-class irrigable land, much of which is already under intensive cultivation. The canal supplying this land is one of the oldest in this territory, and its rights are among the best. One big improvement vastly increased the value of land in this project in 1918 by the building of a dam across the river.

This was determined at a meeting of the directors and a full representation of the different interests under the canal. The Bridgeport irrigation district covers the land under the old Belmont canal, extending from the headgate to about forty miles east and comprising as stated, about 15,000 acres of irrigated land. A large share of this land is owned by the Central States Land Company, successors to the old Belmont concern.