ABSTRACT
The new Reclamation Service started work as soon as the Act was passed in 1902, first on the Newlands Project in Nevada, and later in Arizona and Oregon. Thus Theodore Roosevelt laid the groundwork for the Newlands Reclamation Act which passed through Congress in 1902, permitting government to engage in the construction of irrigation dams and projects throughout the West. Agriculture would be supported by pumping water 280 feet uphill to an old river bed, creating Banks Lake, and building four more dams, 300 miles of canals and 3,500 miles of drains and waterways. The Los Angeles River basin was usually so dry that the ground cover was insufficient to hold the rain which fell. Many early projects were begun with poor understanding of returns and construction risks. Subsidies were high: reclamation projects with 40 year repayment periods and 10 year grace periods had interest-related subsidies of 57 per cent. Theodore Roosevelt’s conservation policy was strictly utilitarian.
