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<br />With the dose of the frontier, many of the social and <br />economic characteristics still found within the basin <br />were in evidence. The humid eastcm edge had become <br />an extension of the Corn Belt j;md (he plains were <br />producing their basic products - livestock and small <br />grains. In the mountains. the gold booms were Qver and <br />agriculture and diversified mining had become firmly <br />established. Irrigation had been introduced in the <br />mountain valleys and along the mountain fronts, with <br />water laws based upon the doctrine of prior appropria- <br />tion as the guiding principle. <br /> <br /> <br />.... <br />~ <br /> <br /> <br />~.w <br /> <br />Irrigation Was Initiated Near the Mountains in the <br />Middle 1800's <br /> <br /> <br />Many of the <lttitudes and beliefs that are much jn <br />evidence today, particularly in Ihe rural areas and in the <br />small towns, achieved their greatest pruminence during <br />the settlement period. The ideas of individualism, the <br />role of government in internal development projects. the <br />bJS1C distrust and agitation against th~ political :md <br />economic ~olltrol by the East and the moral values <br />concerning social order and goals all were founded in the <br />events and conditions of settlement within the basin. <br />These human traits probably will continue to be a part <br />of the basin's character for some time to ,ollle and will <br />have a bearing upon many of the future actions of its <br />people_ <br /> <br />BOOM AND BUST <br /> <br />As the great influx of settlers into the basin <br />progressed, the physical and economi~ problems they <br />were tu face became evident. Some of the physical <br />hazards were apparent from the beginning. While <br />drought or grasshoppers drove a few of the settlers out <br />of the basin, most of them stayed. and more came. The <br />rugged winter of 1885- J 886 resulted i" a considerable <br />exodus of settlers_ So did the drought years of <br />1890-1891, the grasshopper year of 1892. the economic <br />panic of 1893, and the drought period of 1894-1895_ <br />However, with the favorable r.ains of 1896 came a new <br />wave of settlers into the basin. By 1899, the immigration <br />boom was going strong and reached its peak shortly after <br />the turn of the century. <br />A number of innovations was developed during this <br />time which helped the settlers c.ope with the vagaries of <br /> <br /> <br />Droughts Motivaled Beller Utilization of Land and Waler <br /> <br />climate and other natural hazards of the basin. From <br />these innovations came the "dry farming" methods, <br />irrigation, neW crop varieties, and new machinery which <br />were better adapted to the basin's own agriculture. <br />However, such innovations had only a peripheridl effect. <br />By and large, the farmer came to accept the natural <br /> <br />24 <br /> <br />hazards 3S necessary evils or he acquired a sort of <br />mystical hope t1"t they would diminish as he setlled the <br />land_ <br />The exploitative power of the railroads, the meal <br />packers, the flour mills, credit. and other institutions <br />soon was plainly evident to the settlers. Economic <br />