The latter were without cost to the Indians, but there seemed no way to convince eastern congressmen that the building of irrigation works would serve a double purpose : make homes on the land and control stream flow. Congressmen called the reclamation act a "slick steal" saying that never a dollar spent would be paid back. In this the prophets were not accurate, although these charges are no more justifiable against the water user than levee charges on the lower Misissippi would be against the people living in that vicinity.

Dams and Reservoirs

The Pathfinder Dam and Reservoir is one of the great engineering features of the government irrigation system in the North Platte valley. Briefly it will impound 1,000,000 acre feet of water (sufficient to cover 1,000,000 acres one foot deep). This water is collected from melting snows in the early part of the season and thereby serves to prevent floods that used to, frequently, and in fact every June and July tear along with destructive force from the foot of the Rocky Mountains to the Gulf of Mexico. This is held back and released as needed for irrigation in the months of August and September, when the rainfall on the high plains is usually insufficient for crop needs.

The expense of this dam has been charged to the water users in the North Platte valley, although the benefits are fully as pronounced in Arkansas, Louisiana, and other states of the south.

On the north side of this valley, in Scotts Bluff county, there are two constructed reservoirs along the line of the Interstate canal. Lake Alice, so named in respect of Theodore Roosevelt, and for his daughter Alice Longworth, is a beautiful lake two miles long and about a half mile wide with a maximum depth of about thirty feet.