The first ditch was a ditch that a missionary cut from the Yakima river to his garden. Chief Kamikan took it over and that is what establishes the pre-emtry water rights that the Yakima tribe has. The first real effort that got anywhere as I recall was the Konewak water Co. that sold shares in a water company and put in some ditch and went broke. They were absorbed by the Sunnyside Water Company thatthen went ahead and put in the Sunnyside Canal. My grandma when she lived in Zillah had two shares of Konawak water. And as I recall there wasn't any charge for water delivered on those shares, only the sunnyside shares. I believe that one of the prime movers was a man named Prosser, that the town is named after. Thereis a dam there and at one time a very large Flour mill. that burned about the time of WW2 I think. During the war and after the Roza canal was put in several miles up the slope of the Rattlesnake hills from the Sunnyside canal. But some tim durin the thirties there was a small canal put in above the sunnyside canal called the Highline ditch. My memory isn't all that well and the old folks that I got it from are all gone now. Jim Carr Deanna Newhard-Pappert wrote: > Ya know if it wasnt for these mailing lists and using all the collective > minds, I just would not be getting where I want to go! > Yet another good Idea! Thanks James > Deanna > > At 07:02 PM 1/29/99 -0600, James Carr wrote: > >Probably the archives at the college in Ellensburg. > >Jim Carr > > > >Deanna Newhard-Pappert wrote: > > > >> Does anyone have any Ideas as to where to go about getting any info on 3 of > >> the Irrigation ditches, the Moxee Company, the Hubbard and the Fowler > >> ditch. My third great grandfather, Charles V. Fowler and his two sons, > >> Frank and Zachariah T. Fowler took out these ditches. These were the 3 > >> first ditches in the Yakama Valley. > >