Complexity in a Ditch: Bringing Water to the Idaho Desert

Water-or the lack of it-has profoundly shaped the settlement patterns, economic development, and political dynamics of the arid American West. On Idaho's Snake River Plain, irrigation has been particularly complex, influenced by local and national politics as well as geography and technology. Throughout two decades, author Hugh T. Lovin researched and published insightful articles on the topic in a wide array of scholarly journals. The articles gathered here offer a thorough examination of the transformation and controversy related to the region's irrigation. Encouraged by the Carey Act of 1894, settlers flocked to the Idaho desert. Bureau agents and speculators followed. Lovin explores their efforts to farm, promote, and irrigate, covering successes and failures of key players. He discusses related federal policies; the Twin Falls, King Hill, and other projects; and the fight to divert Yellowstone water. Idaho historian Adam M. Sowards' valuable introduction sets Lovin's work in context: "No one knows irrigation better than Hugh Lovin, and the essays included here are gems of historical research." A fourth generation Idahoan, Hugh T. Lovin (1928-2014), was a professor of history at Boise State University from 1966 to 1993.