Desperate times, calls for desperate measures. This was the predicament the Tule and Baxter Creek Irrigation Districts were dealing with in 1928, with the problems associated with the Bly Tunnel at Eagle Lake. What had transpired was when Leon Bly contracted with Grant Smith Company the inlet was to be eight to nine feet below the lake surface. That company encountered solid rock and only did three below the surface, thus not an adequate supply of water.
On the first go around the districts hired a contractor to correct the problem by lowering the inlet by five feet, but the contractor failed to do so.
In the summer of 1928 the districts consulted with Alex Wise, the superintendent of the three largest mines at Virginia City, Nevada. Wise agreed to examine the Bly Tunnel, and was sympathetic about the district’s plight and waived his standard $200 a day fee, but asked the districts to pay for his travel expenses.
Wise said it was feasible to lower the intake by ten feet. He estimated the cost at $35,000. Before the work could move forward the districts and the bondholders would have to agree and on top of that figure out how to finance it.