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<br /> <br />-:... ...~ <br /> <br />~.~ i' f <br />._It <br /> <br />}.;.. <br /> <br />-, <br /> <br />....,;:.," <br />'s~_~_ _!~,... ' <br /> <br />Miners Diverted and Used Water for Hydraulic Gold Mining. <br />They Devised New Laws to Establish Rights for Water Use. <br /> <br />the same opportunities as did their forebearers to the <br />east. Congressional enactments affecting the Missouri <br />River Basin began increasingly to recognize that the <br />creat"ion of national wealth and of citizen opportunity <br />depended to a large extent on the development of water <br />resources. The recognition of water importance came <br />first in minor matters, principally relating to rights-of- <br />way for canals and reservoirs, but the scope and impact <br />of Congressional action was progressively enlarged. <br />In 1877, the Congress passed the Desert Land Act. <br />This act provided that a settler who was willing to <br />develop irrigation would be entitled to acquire 640 acres <br />of public land, but he was limited to 320 irrigable acres. <br />The Act also provided for the use of water on <br />non-riparian lands. This permitted the full development <br />of the doctrine of appropriation and of the water-use <br />principle of "first in time, first in right." Without this <br />doctrine, irrigation would have been confined to the <br />immediate river bottoms, since only riparian owners <br />could then have legally used the water. <br />Maj. John Wesley Powell, the renowned geologist and <br />anthropologist, well understood the futility of the early <br />Government land and water policy. In his April I , 1878 <br />report to the Government and in specific proposals to <br />the Congress, he recommended that farm units be <br /> <br />32 <br /> <br />greatly enlarged and water recognized as the key to <br />successful farming or ranching. <br />Strong Congressional support for large-scale water <br />resource development was expressed in the Joint <br />Resolution of March 20, 1888. This resolution directed <br />the Secretary of the Interior "to investigate the <br />practicability of constructing reservoirs for the storage <br />of water in the arid region of the United States." The <br />resolution stated further that - <br /> <br />". . . a large portion of the unoccupied public <br />lands of the United States is located within what is <br />known as the arid region and now utilized only for <br />grazing purposes, but much of which, by means of <br />irrigation, may be rendered as fertile and pro- <br />ductive as any land in the world, capable of <br />supporting a large population thereby adding to <br />the national wealth and prosperity. . ." <br /> <br />At the same time, the Congress withdrew from sale or <br />entry all lands needed for irrigation works or <br />"susceptible of irrigation." The withdrawal was <br />prompted by Congressional concern that "continued <br />disposal of lands in that region under the land laws <br />migh t render it difficult and costly to obtain the <br />