Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 225, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 September 1914 — MARBLE DITCH WILL RECLAIM LARGE ACREAGE [ARTICLE]

MARBLE DITCH WILL RECLAIM LARGE ACREAGE

Straightening of the Channel of the Kankakee Will Make Valuable Lands Formerly a Total Waste /

IS TO BE FINISHED BY DEC. 1,1916 Estimated Yardage Is 5,050,000 and At Wt. Cents Per Yord Will Cost ' $277,750, Which is More Than $50,000 Less Than the Estimated Cost. Dredge Varies in Width—Specifications Call for 15-Poot Berm as Precaution Against Earth Washing or Sliding Back Into Channel —ißig Dredge Will Have 90-Foot Boom and 3-Yard Diaper.

The Marble ditch is to be completed by Dec. Ist, 1916, according to the requirements in the specifications, and this means that the firm of R. H. and G. A. McWilliams, of Chicago, the successful bidders, must exert every effort. This they propose to do and Attorney A. Hailed? has received word that material for one of the dredges is already being shipped. * • The project is the most important that has so far been carried to success in' Jasper county. The Ryan ditch, which is now in the higher courts, may affect a greater number of acres in this county, but the Kankakee drainage is a matter of such great importance because it is to drain a large acreage that for years was an almost total waste. It is something like ten years since a scheme was started in another county. A special bill was presented to the legislature wbieh seemed inimical to the interests of Jasper county land owners. Attorney Halleck made a study of'tffe measure and on behalf of Horace Marble picked put the objectionable features of the law and succeeded in defeating it in the legislature' of 1907. At that time Horace Marble was not a friend to the proposition of dredging the river, but he saw that it was going to come sooner or later and he decided to father the petition in order that the proceedings might take place in Jasper county. Attorney W. S. Potter, of Lafayette, one of the members ol the Northern Indiana Land Co., became associated with Attorney Haljeck and for eight years they have been fighting the ditch through the courts. The letting of the contract last week was a crowning feature of thei'r long labor and is to result in an improvement of such vast value that its effect can scarcely be estimated. Thousands of acres in the north part of Jasper and Newton counties and the south part of Porter and Lake counties will be reclaimed and virgin fields that have raised wild hay as their only crop will blossom into fields of com and wheat and into truck farms of rare fertility. The ditch is to start at the Jasper and Starke county lines. The survey is made very much on a direct line from there to the Monon bridge at Water Valley. The ditch extends three miles below the bridge and another petition now in the tourts of Newton county proto continue the improvement to the Nekton county Pine. The Channel affected by this drainage has a length of something like 40 miles as it Winds around, but the completed ditch according to the Marble survey, will be only 28 miles iiji length. The bottom of the ditch is to be 70 feet wide at the Starke county

line and to widen to 100 feet at the western terminal. The top will be 20 feet wider, the ditch being 10 feet in depth apd the banks having a 1-1 Hobbs has embodied into|fclje£specifieations a precaution a£ajfl&t the earth washing or sliding back into the channel and against its weight forcing the underbank back into the channel. It is required that the earth be thrown back a distance ofls feet from the edge. The ditch will be widened at various stations 5 feet at each increase, starting ‘ at 70 feet, then 75 and so on up tu 100 There are seven laterals and the McWilliams company is to build all of these as well as the main ditch. The first of these laterals will be built down stream and it is probable that the others will be dug upstream, so that the dredge will not have to be torn down and reconstructed after each lateral is built. It is possible that the laterals may be built by a subcontractor. * The big dredge will have a 90 feet long and the dipper will be of SV s yards capacity. This will be a somewhat larger dredge than the Sternberg dredge now working on the Horntrager ditch in this county. Several bridges will have to be removed to permit the dredge to pass. The C. & E. 1., Wabash Valley, C, I. & S. and the Monon railroad bridges and the Dunn, Baum, Old Hebron, New' Hebron and Water Valley wagon bridges will all be removed as the dredge reaches them and It is probable the old Hebroil grade bridge will not be rebuilt. The estimated yardage for the main ditch and the laterals was 5,050,000 and the estimated cost was 6Vs cents. yard. The contract price was 514 cents. This will make the ditch cost $277,750 or $50,000 less than the estimate which will amount to considerable saving to the land owners affected. An important feature of the work will be the clearing of the timber away from the course of the ditch. This work will probably proceed during the winter months. William Pinney, of Porter county, who has thrown all the obstacles of delay he could in the way of the diteh, has served notice on the contractors that the timber on his land belongs to him and that he expects it to be piled lip and left in good order. Attorney Halleck remarked that it-is somewhat of a wonder that Pinney did not demand that it be sawed, seasoned, veneered, made into kitchen cabinets and delivered to Pinney. He says that the ownership of the timber is in some doubt unless the land owners do the clearing themselves and that Mr. Pinney may know more when he gets through than he knows now, just as he gath ered some information about ditching. , V , ,f ■Frank Nave, of Attica, has a large acreage in this county that will be affected by the drainage. So has the Northern Indiana Land Co-, of Lafayette, and H. W. Marble, *)* Wheatfleld. All of these men and all the land owners affected b 7 the drainage on this side of the river welcome the approach of the greater day when oats and Wheat and corn will replace the wild hay and the waste land along the present Kankakee. It is a step of progress that will be of material help to all the counties affected, t