Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 May 1889 — Western Lakes Drying Up. [ARTICLE]

Western Lakes Drying Up.

Winnemucca Silver State. The lakes in Eastern Oregon, as well as in Nevada, are drying up. In some instances the water in the lakes is subsiding because the streams which empty into them have been diverted from their natural channels for purposes of of irrigation, but the continuous drought, doubtless, has had much to do with the low stage of water in them. The Herald, published in the new county of Harney, Ore., says not over four square miles of the original bed of War ner’s Lake is now covered with water, whereas in 1865 there was seven feet of water where the land is now dry, and thia Spring a stack containing 3«0 tons of hay was burned on land which in 1874 was surveyed as Warner Lake. Goose Lake, which once reached Lakeview, Ore., is now five miles away, and Malheur Lalpijn Harney County, is

eight feet lower than at an period within the memory of the oldest inhabitant. In this county Humboldt Lake, which Some years ago comprised a sheet of water sixteen or eighteen miles long and from eight to twelve miles wide, is now only a few miles long and perhaps a milebrtwowide. The Humboldt haa not discharged any water into the lake for several years, and a large area,which was covered several feet with water at one time, is now as dry as any other part of the Humbol It Valley. It is a fact, however, (hat the lake was as low nine or ten years ago as it is to-day, and that five years ago it was as high as it was ever known to be. Immigrants in early days who saw the Humboldt discharge an immense volume of Water into the lake, or sink, as it was called, believed it had a subterranean outffit; but that idea was erroneous, as the volume of water was reduced by evaporaion, not drainage.