In 1899, the U.S. Department of Agriculture commissioned a study on water problems in the American West.  The Honey Lake Basin was one place selected and William Smythe was hired to author the report.

Smythe was well known for his work on reclamation issues in the West.  However, Smythe was well versed in the region beginning in 1897 with his Standish Colony and the Honey Lake Valley Colonial Irrigation System. Smythe did provide some unique observations. Concerning Eagle Lake, Smythe noted the importance of the lake for irrigation. Smythe stressed that the lake should only be used during periods of drought, but that the lake was essential in any major reclamation project for the Honey Lake Valley. Smythe became the first person to go on record questioning Eagle Lake’s water supply. It was widely believed that the lake’s water supply was “inexhaustible” due to mysterious springs in the lake’s bottom. Smythe retorted that it that was true, then why had the level of the lake not increased over the years to flood the borderlands, or to eventually overflow the Willow Creek divide? Smythe finally wrote, “It is question which can never be satisfactorily settled until the experiment of the tunnel is actually made.”

Smythe made it a point to stress the problems of California’s vagueness in water right appropriations and that it was a major hindrance in the development of the Honey Lake Valley. He noted one claim of 4,000,000 miner inches of Eagle Lake and Willow Creek water and sarcastically wrote, “Fortunately for those residents of Honey Lake Valley who could not swim, this enterprise was never carried out.” It should be noted that between 1874 to 1897 there were 14,201,400 miner inches of Eagle Lake water claimed!

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