Here he put in a number of years in building an independent irrigation project which he has completed, and owns a lot of the land thereunder. About one-half of the sixteen hundred acres covered by the ditch belongs to Mr. and Mrs. French, her homestead being a part of the watered tract.

The permit is taken from the river in Wyoming, but Mr. French secured his rights by proper procedure before the Nebraska authorities, thereby making his appropriation doubly

Water Claims in County On September \i<. 1887, the first water appropriation was taken out in Scotts Bluff, and the second on the North Platte river in Nebraska. This, as has been state, ripened into the Farmers Irrigation district right which

HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

was merged into the government system, and farmers secured the benefits of the Pathfinder storage as an exchange.

Following in the order given are the appropriations from the river and other streams in Scotts Bluff county.

Farmers canal, September 16, 18S7, from North Platte river, 60,000 acres; Minatare canal, January 14, 1888, from North Platte river. 12,000 acres ; Winter creek canal, October 18, 1888, from North Tlatte river, 7,000 acres ; Enterprise ditch, March 28, 1889, from North Platte river, 12.000 acres ; Castle Rock canal, April 18, 1889, from North Platte river, 5,000 acres ; Central canal, June 23, 1890, from North Platte river, 2,000 acres ; Ramshorn canal. March 20, 1893, from North Platte river, 2,500 acres ; Shortline canal. May 1, 1893, from North Platte river, 3,000 acres; Nine Mile canal, December 6, 1893, from North Platte river. 4,000 acres ; Steamboat ditch, October 22, 1895, from North Platte river, 800 acres; Gering canal, March 15, 1897, from North Platte river, 15,000 acres.