In 1947, the Baxter Creek Irrigation District, along with its counterpart the Tule Irrigation District filed for bankruptcy. On October 16, 1952, Baxter Creek was dissolved. Tule would have suffered the same fate, but last minute legal strategy was saved by W. Cobun Cook*
For Baxter Creek its origins began in 1911, with the creation of the Baxter Creek Irrigation Company. While it looked good on paper, it never materialized.The saga did not end there.
On February 8, 1917, the Baxter Creek Irrigation District was created, a public district, not private entity. While similar in scope of the irrigation company, the district proposed comprised of 9700 acres. When they went to secure a bond measure, the State Engineer’s Office intervened, citing the district’s main water supply was insufficient.
The neighboring Tule Irrigation District was encountering a similar problem to secure bonds for Leon Bly’s Eagle Lake irrigation system. A solution was found where the two districts agreed to pro-rate the costs and secure the bonds for Bly’s irrigation system.
For those in the Baxter Creek system, it required a series of canals and siphons to transport the Eagle Lake water to the west side of the valley. However, the theory of a reliable water supply proved wrong. In 1935, Bly’s Eagle Lake Tunnel was abandoned. For the next decade the two irrigation districts sought solutions, but bankruptcy prevailed.
*Tule Irrigation District is a dormant state. Former Lassen County Counsel Dawson Arnold did not want to abolish it. It was his reasoning if the County wanted an irrigation district, they could simply revive Tule, thus bypassing a formal process to establish one from scratch.