The late John Hall said that later men in yellow britches were doing some good work, but the epoch of real achievement was when men built without money, and almost without machinery.
He tells of when Anton Hiersche, Will Young, and many of the older crowd used to go to Colorado to "pick spuds" for a 'grub stake." Once they observed some discarded scrapers lying by the roadside. On returning home they secured wagons and drove back to the Greeley country, and finding no claimant for the scrapers, they loaded them on their wagons and brought them home. They were
half worn out "slushers." and scrapers of the Mormon "tongued" variety. These were a boon to the ditch builders of the North Platte valley, serving much in the ditch construction of those formative years.
Government Irrigation
By the passage of the reclamation act, in 1904, a new element entered into the development of the west. The power and finance of the United States were put behind the building of systems that before were too large or complicated for the undertaking of private enterprises.
The North Platte valley was singularly fortunate, and Scotts Bluff county most favorably located to invite the building of a vast federal project. After the work of seventeen years, there is yet a tremendous development ahead. Upwards of ten million dollars have been expended in government canals, dams, dikes, reservoirs and systems of laterals, and several million more will be needed to complete the works in this territory.