Key Number:	HS 19403
Site Name:	Magrath Irrigation Canal
Other Names:	Galt Irrigation Canal
Site Type:	1396 - Irrigation Facility: Canal, Headgates, Flume, Siphon, Dam or Reservoir

Location

ATS Legal Description:

			Twp	Rge	Mer
			5	22	4

Address:
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Other:
Town:	Magrath
Near Town:

Media

Type	Number	Date	View	Source

Architectural

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Exterior:	N/A
Interior:	N/A
Environment:	In the town of Magrath.
Condition:	The Canal is in fair condition but the gates and dams associated with it are in poor condition.
Alterations:	1906 - enlarged with a steam shovel in 1906.

Historical

Construction:	Construction Date:
Commission Destroyed in flood	1898/01/01 1903/01/01
Usage:	Usage Date:
Canal Not in use	1900/01/01 1981/06/01
Owner:	Owner Date:
N/A

Architect:	N/A
Builder:	N/A
Craftsman:	N/A
History:	Site Description: The original headgates and sluices of the Magrath Canal were destroyed in a flood in 1903. Some wooden piers which predate the flood are still standing but are in poor condition. Ruins of the diversion weir which diverted water from Pothole Creek to the Canal are evident as are parts of the headgates and waste gates. The largest remaining structure, a concrete dam, was built in 1920. Historical Importance: The Magrath Canal was the first major irrigation project in Alberta. It was commissioned by A.C. Magrath and Elliot Galt of the Alberta Irrigation Company in 1898. By August 1900 the canal was completed to within five miles of Lethbridge. The Alberta Irrigation Company relied upon the expertise of Mormons from Utah to complete the canal. In return for their help, the Mormons were paid $1.50 a day plus board and offered settlement lands in the south of the Province which were made agriculturally viable by the completion of the Canal. Heritage Significance: The Magrath Canal derives its heritage significance from the fact that it irrigated vast portions of Southern Alberta and thus encouraged rapid and widespread settlement. * * * Magrath District History Association: Magrath, Alberta The Alberta Irrigation project was one of the most successful and cheapest projects on virgin land. The company got not one cent in cash from the government, the total subsidy consisting of remission of survey fees for land earned for railway building. The situation at the time was rather desperate. From 1888 there was a long drought of about seven years and no settlers were coming to the prairie country. This was a serious matter to a country that was building a railroad across the nation. And of course very serious for the railroad builders - no revenue and a lot of land they could not dispose of. But Mr. Magrath had talked to Ora Card and then to the Mormon church authorities. They made more than one deal before a final arrangement was successful. By it the settlers got land quite cheaply while earning enough to keep them. But, as Mr. Magrath said. Once the deal was through, it began to rain and the settlers wondered what irrigation was for. ... All the work on the ditch itself - canal - below the headgates was done by small contract. A man, or group of men, contracted to make what length they thought they could do, at so mach per yard of dirt moved. Rasmussen had the first contract and Dudley had the second one. I think most of these had slip scrapers and a few had tongue scrapers, or as they were sometime called, Mormon slips. They were wood scrapers with a metal load plate and had a tongue on them. A chain held the scraper at the proper angle but I am not quite sure how they worked. I saw one used once. A long lever at the back was used for digging and dumping but I do not think they held as much the usual slip. Larger outfits who had to cart the dirt a bit farther used wheel scrapers they carried more earth and with less power to move the load. A long lever at the back called a Johnson Bar was used to raise the load it. As far as I know the four horse slip, known as a fresno was not used. I never saw one till much later. But the diversion dam would be under some company crew. That is the boss was a company man. It should be remembered that there were other diversion dams. First of course was at Kimball to get the water out of the St. Mary's River. Then there was a long flume to carry the water over Willow Creek which was dry except in the spring. Then a canal brought the water to Pine Pound Creek and that was used till just above Spring Coulee say half a mile or so above the railway track. Then a diversion dam was built (the remains of the cement dam that replaced the original dam is still there). The canal carried the water to the west fork of Pothole Creek just east of Spring Coulee (which originally was in Pine Pound Coulee a mile or so west). At the time Pothole Creek just east of mile or so west). At the time Pothole (west branch) was just a shallow coulee at this point but cut down much deeper and at Bradshaw exposed old Indian sites. Two miles down stream of Bradshaw was yet another dam to divert water into the irrigation lateral, now known as the 'low line' and the only one of the dams still in use. A great deal of boulders was used to line the canal below this diversion dam, after it threatened to cut out the dam. ... We rolled large rocks down the high hill and some tried walking along the cut bank about ten feet above the water. Eddie Price was near the middle of the bank when a chunk of earth slipped down and pinned his feet to the earth. Two boys worked their way out from the ends of the cut bank and clawed the earth away, till he could move his feet and let the earth slide into the water. - Grand time - Toward evening it began to snow, very lightly, and we had the long walk home. One day I never forgot. The floods washed out the Magrath diversion dam in 1902 and a new dam replaced it about fifty yards upstream. I remember that above the dam or headgates there was a long spillway to care for extra water - particularly flood water. A twelve inch plank ran over this spillway. I found I could hardly walk across the spillway with rushing water two or three feet below me, pouring over the spillway. I am not just sure when the present cement headgates were put in. ... Eleanor Kimball lived for a time on the ditch just west of my place. Alvin Rich said that the Relief Society teachers, who were quite large decided, when they visited, to bathe in the ditch. He said they flooded lands for half a mile upstream when the bank overflowed. Harry Evans built a boat to be used on the canal though it's best use was during the floods to cross the creek. Some young fellows took some girls for a ride and one of the boys insisted on rocking the boat. Hattie Alston became hysterical and finally was in a coma from which shed did not recover for a day or so - I forget how long. Mother said she went up to see about it as she had been a nurse. Hattie was about recovered - that is just needed some little push to come out of it. But at the moment she recognized no one. 'Why Hattie,' said mother, 'Don't you know me? I'm Sister Ackroyd.' About the most opposite appearing woman in town, Hattie laughed. She knew that wasn't so. Everything was O.K. but no one wrecked the boat again. We did have the one sad event when Gold Harker was killed, but you know that one. And that many swam at the headgates. ... The man who actually came to open the Canal was Lord Minto in September of the next year (...) but the weather so delayed things that the opening ceremony never did take place. ... Prepared and written by J.A. Spencer. * * * Notes on the Canal: Winter 1979 Prepared by Burns Lola Harker and friends. March 17, 1899 (Same Paper) There are one hundred teams at work hauling lumber for the canal. They are manned by Indians. They will haul a quarter of a million feet this week March 24, 1899 from the Cardston Record. The Mormons have taken the contract for construction of the irrigation canal which commences south east of Cardston, running to Stirling, a distance of 50 miles. April 21, 1899 (Same Paper) In conversation with Canal Contractor John M. Dunn, who was in Cardston employing men to work for him, we ascertained the following facts: they paid $1.75 fro single hands without board or $1.25 with board, $3.50 for men with teams (a day) Mr. Dunn commenced work with squite a number of teams this week. In 1898 the Alberta Railroad Irrigation Co. commenced work on the irrigation canal tapping the St. Mary River with a dam headgates built at Kimball. This marked the beginning of commercial and industrial growth in the area. Other settlers floced to work on the canal. The canal was finished in July 1900; then enlarged wit a steam shovel in 1906. ... 4. How was the canal dug? The canal was dug with hand labour and the tools of the time. The ground was plowed with a hand plough and 4 horses - usually 3 furrows plowed. The scrapers, fresnos (two horse and four horse), slips wheel scrapers used two horses. We are not sure if dump wagons were used on the original cut, but they were used extensively on repair. The wheel scrapers and dump wagons hauled dirt from a distance to fill. (Slips and fresnos were used on plowed ground.) All dirt had to be plowed first. ... 9. Are there any interesting stories about that area (Historically interesting)? Two floods 1902 or 1903 and 1908 - the canal bridges washed out. Tom remembered the 1908 flood. He and Heber Tracy were in a tent out South of Town. It started to rain. They stayed until their beds were soggy and it was impossible to cook. Smith and Mariu Ackroyd were batching doron on the Ackroyed place, where Charlie A's farm is now. They went down as they had a shock with a roof over it. They stayed nearly a week - played cards to see who would milk the one cow and tend horses. After a week when the sun came out they rode over the 'Lig Bourne's. As they rode back, from a high piece of ground, they could see the whole canal from Spring Coulee to Welling in flood and over the channel in places. May stories are told about this flood and the one in 1902. The floods were one thing that got people thinking of the need of a more permanent structure as they washed out the wooden structures, bridges, checks, flumes etc. ... 11. What year was Gold killed? Gold Harker was killed July 30, 1926, a beautiful summer day; he drove, and struck a sand bar that had formed overnight. This shows how quick the sand moved. ... * * * Draft Press Release Edmonton, Alberta The Honourable Dennis Anderson, Minister of Culture, announced today that the Magrath Canal has been designated a Provincial Historic Resource. The Magrath Canal was part of the St. Mary River Project, the first major irrigation project to be undertaken in Southern Alberta. It was constructed in 1898 by the Canadian North-West Irrigation Company on lands owned by the Alberta Railway and coal Company headed by the Galt family. Members supplied the labour in exchange for both land and cash payments. The project thus served the interests of the settlers, who received mortgage-free, irrigated land; the railway company, which succeeded in its ambition to turn the region into farmland; and the federal government, which aimed at the turn of the century to promote rapid settlement in southern Alberta. In addition to advancing the agricultural settlement of Southern Alberta, the St. Mary River project also led to the creation of new urban communities at Magrath, Raymond and Stirling. The Magrath Townsite was surveyed in the spring of 1899. In April of that year Mr. and Mrs. R. Rasmussen and Parley Carter, the town's first residents, arrived from Utah. Other families soon followed and as soon as building materials could be produced, building commenced not only on residences but also on the Magrath Mercantile Company and the blacksmith shop of George Naylor. The railway reached Magrath in 1900 and Magrath was organized into a village in 1901. Nevertheless, Magrath is one of the few Alberta urban communities that does not owe its origins to a Railway Company. * * * Plaque status: Plaqued in 1955/1992 First major irrigation project in Canada, 1898-00

Internal

Designation Status:	Designation Date:
Federally Designated Provincial Historic Resource	1983/01/01 1987/05/14

Register:

Links

Internet:
Alberta Register of Historic Places:	4665-0481