DescriptionOn May 8, 1805, Capt. Meriwether Lewis wrote in his journal: “The water of this river possesses a peculiar whiteness, being the colour of a cup of tea with the admixture of a tablespoonfull of milk.” The Hidatsas had told Lewis and Clark about the river, referring to it as the “River which scolds all others.” In 1902, the U.S. Reclamation Service proposed the Milk River Irrigation Project. The U.S. secretary of the interior authorized the project in 1903, pending an agreement with Canada for diversion of water from the St. Mary River. The project was an elaborate engineering scheme to divert water from the St. Mary River into the North Fork of the Milk River, trapping it in a reservoir near Havre, then releasing the water via diversion dams at Dodson and Vandalia into canals that could irrigate up to 200,000 acres. With the signing of the Boundary Waters Treaty in 1909, the project moved forward. Construction continued for 4 decades on a variety of irrigation canals and diversions.Personal NamesLews, MeriwetherContributing InstitutionMontana Historical Society Library and ArchivesGeolocation[1]
