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00;: ~''7 u,l~ " POYlER PRDGRIIJ.1 IN THE IUSSOURI RIVER BASIN The primary objec,tive of the Bureau of Reclamation is the devel- opment of irrigated, family-sized farms through the application of water to the arid lands of the west. This ~rinciple has been rigidly adhered to throughout the Bureau's over 40 years' of life and remains basic in the Bureau's part of the Missouri River Basin development of today. ., The practice of irrigation \Ias begun many years ago by the siJDple diversion of a stream, or a portion of it, to adjacent valley lands. In a relatively few years the lands which wet-e suitable for irrigation by such simple methods were exhausted. The irriGation of these lands also established an early water-right in the flowing water. As the low-lying valley lands that could be reached by simple diversion be- came exhausted, the \lO.ter supply, especially during the irrigation season, approached the minimum permissible flow. These conditions pointed an obvious conclusion. In order to develop further irriga- tion it \/as necessary to store flood \Iaters and to regulate stream flows. It was also necessary to raise the water to bench lands and to lands lying above the river bed. It became obvious that in order to make such water-lifting projects economically feasible, some source of low-cost power must be found. The solution to these problems oame in the form of large storage reservoirs which retained flood flows for irrigation use during the growing season. Coincident with the realization of the need for such structures came the realization that they would create potential power heads and that releases made for irrigation purposes could be made to do dOUble duty by driving generators which \muld produce energy for cOroQercial sale, the low-cost energy needed for irrigation pumping, and it was to satisfy these needs that the now familiar multiple pur- pose structure began to take shape on the dra\ling boards of Bureau of Reclamation designers. As each structure was planned, provision was made for the instal- lation of adequate electrical GCnerating equipment to make optilllum use of the power potential inherent in the stored water. l1achinery was installed \Iith a view to the foreseeable power needs of the project area. It \ms soon discoverod that power could be produced in excess of the project demands and that it found a ready market in neighboring towns and communities. Throu~h the sale of such excess electrical eners.r the Bureau of Reclamation gradually found itself wholesaling electric power. The Minidoka project in Idaho and the Salt River proj- ect in Arizona \lere among the first to enter the commercial power field. The great Hoover Dam on the Colorado River in Arizona and Nevada, completed in 1936 was the first of the truly great power dams built by tho Bureau of Reclamation. It was the first stnlctura undertaken 53