While in the past I have focused a lot on Leon Bly’s Eagle Lake project. There was an aspect that I have neglected. For the farmers of the Tule Irrigation District a lot of infrastructure was in place for the distribution of water. For those in the Baxter Creek Irrigation District it was a bit more problematic to deliver the water to the other side of the valley. A redwood siphon was constructed to carry the water from Willow Creek over the Susan River. Then a canal was constructed along Bald Mountain to Baxter Creek where a diversion dam was placed to distribute the water.

In early April 1935, over one hundred feet of the siphon broke at the Susan River crossing. It was a devastating blow to the Baxter Creek Irrigation District. Cost estimates to repair the siphon was around $50,000, money the district did not have or could not have raised. The district eventually went into bankruptcy and dissolved in 1952. As to the siphon, many of the ranchers slowly dismantled it for the wood for building and fencing.

Tim