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HISTORICAL SUMMARY y..;,')' ,.;,.(";.....:.:.;:~-~; -1'....<r..' ';;Y~i:.:;~":':;:~; . .ont~J3 ' In January 1905, work began on one of the earliest Reclamation de- velopments in the United States. It was the North Platte Project in Wyoming and Nebraska, the heart of the Missouri River Basin. Total funds available for Reclamation development work in the Basin reached an a11time high of nearly $109.5 million in 1950 and a low of about $34 million in 1957, as shown by the following table. The trend since that time was generally upward until 1965 headed a series of re- ductions to last year's $32.2 million. This year's $35.8 million total represents a slight increase. ;!;:'::;i:.~;;~~;:: I :.;," .'. ,~.. . :::':':., ..-.... i:;i:j~{<~}~~~~; Before the year had run its course, the Bureau of Reclamation, then the Reclamation Service, had started construction on three more pioneer projects, all in the Missouri River Basin--Be11e Fourche in South Dakota, Huntley in Montana, Lower Yellowstone in Montana and North Dakota--and the Yuma in Arizona and California. By 1944, a revolutionary new concept of water resources development planning had been evolved. It was the basinwide concept and it too was pioneered in the Missouri River Basin, with the passage of the Flood Control Act of 1944 which identified a general basinwide plan for the development of the water resources of a major river basin. At the time of the authorization of the initial stages of the de- velopment, the Nation was totally involved in World War II; thus, it was not until 1946 that a sizable appropriation was made for development work on that plan. The first Missouri River Basin Project allocation, made in 1946, was only slightly larger than the appropriation for previously author- ized Reclamation projects, as shown in the following table. A comparison of the allocations to the Missouri River Bas.in Project and other author- ized Reclamation projects 'in the Basin clearly shows a construction peak for the Reclamation work authorized prior to the 1944 legislation during the years 1949 through 1953 and the subsequent merging of the entire Bureau of Reclamation program with the Missouri River Basin Project work. The level of Missouri River Basin Project allocations increased from a $14-mi1lion beginning to an $81.5-mi11ion peak in 1950, then decreased generally over the years to about a $32-mi11ion level in 1958. Beginning in 1958 small annual increases were the rule through 1962. A small cut- back occurred in 1963, and the 1964 figure reached nearly $71 million. ;.\:'.>:/~ ~:<>.,.;: ;.:. ;..~;~.~~!<~~?;.:/. .. ::"-,:;"~'-. .,..... .... ':', ,..--< '..", .:; " . ....... :.., '_::~ ~ /'~'..:;.:.':~.'>':'. ....-,". ,0".;""<'"'-::,::' .' ..\.;/>:;.~~.(:-::,~ :.,.;.:.:,..;.:..;.... ". 1 ':f>;:;:',;~'j.;': f,~f~r~~1t;tif~~}~~1;t~%ir~f:~%i~~rJit~f~~;ltB;;:;i';~%;~~i~l't~t~f: