Buffalo Rapids Irrigation Project records, 1931-1954

In 1932, a group of eastern Montana farmers, ranchers, and businessmen formed the Mid-Yellowstone Recovery Association to investigate ways of ameliorating the prevailing drought conditions. They were especially interested in the possibility of irrigating the agricultural lands along the Yellowstone River between Glendive and Miles City. The Association's organizers began corresponding with other states that had similar irrigation projects. After raising $6,000 from Custer, Prairie, and Dawson County residents, the group subsequently obtained funds under the National Industrial Recovery Act for a Bureau of Reclamation investigation on the proposed Buffalo Rapids Irrigation Project. Based upon the Bureau's report, the 18,000-acre Glendive Unit (Division No. 1) was organized in 1937, and received a $1,600,000 federal allotment. Construction began that same year on the main canal and work was completed in 1941. Construction of lateral canals was completed two years later. In 1939, a second division of the project, encompassing the Terry, Fallon, and Shirley Units along the Yellowstone's south bank and consisting of 11,600 acres, was approved under the Great Plains Act. However, due to the shortage of materials during World War II, construction of the Fallon Unit was stopped altogether and work on the other two units was permitted only to the extent that materials became available. The Shirley and Terry Units were completed in 1944, but it was not until August 1945 that War Production Board controls on new construction were lifted, and contracts were awarded for the Fallon Unit.