This reference to irrigation leads us to a paragraph or so on the remarkable work done by the Canadian Pacific in order to make the dry spaces of Southern Alberta blossom like the rose. In years when rain is plenteous the need of irrigation is not so apparent, but on the average there are some areas of that southern portion decidedly dry, although fertile if watered. In days far gone by, these areas were the habitat of the buffalo, and in later years ranchers held thousands of acres under rental from the Government for great herds of cattle and droves of horses. From buffalo to the tame species seemed a reasonable transition, and, barring accidents or untimely weather in winter or summer, the ranchers did business of great value to the country, and in most cases, with reasonable management, made money. Then the Government decided that these great spaces should be thrown open for homesteading, and the wide-reaching range has given place to numerous farms over the same area. This was well enough in wet years, but when the dry years came crop failure stared the homesteader in the face. This led Colonel J. S. Dennis, civil engineer and surveyor, who (like his father of the same name and vocation) has been from early times intimately connected with Western Canada in peace and war, to study the whole situation. There had been some limited areas around Lethbridge irrigated by the old Galt Company, and Colonel Dennis advised the Canadian Pacific to go into the business on a large scale. It took a bold man to give that advice and a determined man to carry it through, at a cost to the Company up to date of the huge sum of sixty millions of dollars. Dennis knew that the Bow River, fed by the eternal glaciers of the Rockies, was an inexhaustible source of water supply if it could be properly harnessed for the task of giving sufficient moisture to the dry spaces of the plain. And this was what Colonel Dennis and his assistants proceeded to bring about by turning the waters of the Bow River in directions where it would do most good in making the wilderness rejoice. For centuries in the ancient mythology of Greece and Rome the fable of Hercules, who cleansed the stables of Augeas, the cattle-king, by turning a river through them, was one of the wondrous tales of the world. That was fable and fiction, but the irrigation plan inaugurated by Dennis in Southern Alberta is fact and reality. It is the biggest irrigation movement on the continent, and for pure romantic interest dwarfs the ancient tale of Hercules into insignificance.
The perfection of the engineering arrangements ensure the settler against interruption of the water service and so against worry in regard to his crops. He is sure of the sunshine and in the irrigation area he is sure of the moisture. The Western section of this area has its centre at Calgary, where, through concrete headgates, the water is admitted from the Bow River as desired. A dam is also provided for very dry seasons and at any time water can be sent seventeen miles into an immense reservoir three miles long and two wide. Out of this reservoir are three secondary canals having a total length of 254 miles. These canals supply water to 1,329 miles of distributing ditches, and when the Company brings the water to the highest point on the boundary of a man’s farm, he can then have it run through his ground as he desires.
To irrigate the Eastern section was a greater problem, but near the town of Bassano the immense dam was built which raised the water of the Bow forty feet above its usual level. This Bassano dam is a costly structure with sluice gates operated by electricity. Then there are canals and reservoirs, including the famous artificial Lake Newell, about twenty-five square miles in extent and containing water enough to cover 185,000 acres of land one foot deep. There is in this same locality, near the town of Brooks, the great concrete aqueduct over a depression of the prairie. This huge water carrier is two miles long and, at places, fifty feet above the ground. It is a unique and startlingly modern sight from the train on the great plains where once the lordly buffalo roamed in vast herds with earth-shaking tread.
The results of all this enormous irrigation system are being slowly worked out, and settlers who are intelligently availing themselves of it are finding immensely increased production, especially in grain and root crops, as well as particularly large yields in alfalfa and timothy hay. The irrigated farm affords endless opportunity for cultivating all that goes to make up a prosperous and variegated homestead. It will yet grow to be a new and large factor in Western Canada. It has cost the railway Company much, but will yield its returns to the honour and credit of the men who made waters flow through vast dry areas and proved the truth of the parabolic saying of the Scripture vision, “everything shall live where the river cometh.”
It is rather a far cry from the irrigated areas of Southern Alberta to the more or less aristocratic residential hill at Vancouver city. But both at least are alike in this, namely, that they exemplify special ways of dealing with land. In the one case the land is a great prairie section which we measure by miles, in the other it is a city section which we measure by feet. The residential hill at Vancouver is appropriately called Shaughnessy Heights after Lord Shaughnessy. Properly speaking, Shaughnessy Heights is in the Municipality of Point Grey, where the Canadian Pacific is the heaviest taxpayer. But the residents on the Heights are leading business and professional men of the city, and hence it is popularly, though not correctly, thought to be part of it. The treasurer of Vancouver, with an eye on tax receipts, would not object to its being in the city!
Shaughnessy Heights at one time was intended by the Company to be a separate municipality. But the way was not open, and the next best thing was to make the area a sort of last word in town planning, and so secure a good sale for the lots therein. The district is largely the result of the foresight of Mr. Richard Marpole, who, as executive agent for the Company, felt that unless something was done to clear the land and make the district attractive for residences, the residential area would settle in another direction and the “hill” would be left high and dry on the Company’s hands. Mr. Marpole’s project for clearing and planning a new residential section was not received with enthusiasm by the Board, on account of the large expenditure involved. But he persisted and finally got his way, to have the land cleared by a new process and a town-planning movement inaugurated under the guidance of a specialist from Europe. At present Shaughnessy Heights has an area of about a thousand acres, though not all cleared, and the expenditure by the Company in developing a residential district there has involved the neat sum of two million dollars.
The district was laid out not in rectangular blocks, but by roadways following the contour of the ground, thus providing an easier grade and giving to the maximum number of residents the best view possible of the mountains and the sea. Both the type and the cost of residences and the location as well as the architecture of all buildings, are subject to the Company’s approval. If any intending residents feel restive under these requirements, their feelings are mollified by the knowledge that the Company not only aims at the best results for all who are intending to build, but, in addition, makes liberal terms for the land and loans money to build the houses. The aim of the Company is to prevent uniformity and sameness in style of residences, and, as to street lines, avoid the straightness which means monotony. By Provincial statute the whole district is to be held till 1935 for residential purposes only, except that provision is made for churches, schools, government buildings and recreation grounds. Some seven hundred houses are already erected on Shaughnessy Heights, and the locality is one of Vancouver’s leading attractions to tourists owing to the fine class of buildings, the wonderful flower gardens, and the rather labyrinthine character of the streets. It is a beauty spot above the general level of the city, and a desirable place of residence for those who can afford it. It is presumed that those who cannot afford it will not try the impossible. Mr. Newton Ker, assistant executive agent for the Company at Vancouver, and formerly city engineer in Ottawa, is in charge of the Heights and the further development that will be necessary as the city grows. He has the combined qualities of an expert and an enthusiast in the work.