We live in the Magic Valley which didn’t become magic until there was irrigation water to turn desert sagebrush land into a lush crop-filled oasis. That came about because of the vision of Ira Perrine who had a farm in the Snake River Canyon near the bridge named for him. Perrine decided to build a dam to divert water for farmland. He needed financial backing so he persuaded Stanley Milner, Frank Buhl, and Peter Kimberly to do so even though none of them lived here! In 1905 construction on Milner Dam and the canals was completed. Frank Buhl opened the dam gates, the water rushed through the canals, and Shoshone Falls immediately went dry! But 262,000 acres of desert were transformed into farmland! (Info from “History of Milner Dam” on Twin Falls Canal Co. Website).

How are we faring 121 years later? According to a report from the University of Idaho by Philip Watson, Idaho is the #1 state in the production of potatoes, barley, alfalfa, and trout, all crops that are grown in our community. We are the #3 state in sugar beets, cheese, milk, and milk cows, again all are produced here. Idaho is in the top five states in the nation for agricultural sales with $44.5 billion in annual sales. That’s astounding! And here the kids were thinking that milk, cheese, and spuds come from the grocery store!

That’s why it’s so important to get out and look at the farmland this time of year. Watch what the farmers are doing as you drive from Buhl to Twin: plowing, discing, harrowing, planting, and watering mostly with pivots, a sprinkler system that pivots around a center. Pivots replaced the earliest method of irrigation which was corrugates or furrows that ran between the crop rows. Tractors pulled v-shaped corrugators to make the furrows but the equipment couldn’t reach far enough on the end of the rows to connect the furrows to the ditch. That’s where slave labor, otherwise known as farm kids, shoveled the connection!

My family went on a trip to Iowa one summer where my mother’s relatives lived. My dad and I stood in a field of corn. “Where are the corrugates?” I asked my dad.

“They don’t need irrigation here because it rains in the summer,” he responded. I pondered that. “Then, what do they do for work?” I asked. My dad laughed himself sick. I didn’t see the humor in that and wondered why the family hadn’t stayed in Iowa!

These days, since I’m no longer shoveling my way through life, I have a different perspective. We are privileged to live in some of the most fertile and productive land in the world! The pioneers who risked their reputations and life earnings to bring water to the crops are our heroes! One of those heroes is Buhl’s namesake! God has blessed us abundantly and we have a visual of that blessing every time we go outside! Let’s give thanks to God this spring for our water and for our crops!

-Priscilla Martens