Truckee-Carson Irrigation District Facility Yard, Sixth & Taylor Streets, Fallon

Source document Quoted word for word from HAER NEV,1-FALL,1-. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Donald L. Hardesty, October Retyped and Transmitted by: Jean P. yearby, HAER, Truckee-Carson Irrigation District Facility Yard HAER No. (Page 2) BACKGROUND INFORMATION in the summer of the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation contracted with the University of Nevado, Reno, to help document the buildings at the Truckee- Carson irrigation District (TCID) Facility Yard in Fallon, Nevada, to Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) standards. The work to be done was stipulated by a Memorandum of Agreement with the Advisory council on Historic Preservation, the State of Nevada Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology, and the Bureau of Reclamation. One of the stipulated tasks is a written historical report chronicling the development of the yard by the U. S.

Reclamation Service, the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District, and the Civilian Conservation Corps. This report is intended to accomplish that task. Methods The methods used in the study reported here included oral interviews, archival research, and a 100 percent ground surface survey of the TCID yard, individuals who were interviewed about the buildings were Doris Morin, Secretary/Treasurer of the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District, and other staff members of the TCID headquarters in Fallon, along with staff members of the Churchill County Museum in Fallon. Most of the primary historical sources were located in the archives at the TCID headquarters. These included weekly, monthly, and annual reports prepared by what was then the U. S.

Reclamation Service (USRS) to describe the progress of what was the Truckee-Carson project between and and the Newlands Project after that. The USRS records were especially detailed between and Maps, correspondence, progress reports, insurance surveys, and photographs were included. Records in the Nevada Historical Society, the Nevada State Archives, the Churchill County Courthouse, the Churchill County Museum, the City of Fallon Manager's Office, and the Bureau of Reclamation archives in Sacramento were consulted, as well. HISTORICAL BACKGROUM) Newlands Proj ect The Newlands Project, formerly the Truckee-Carson Project, was one of the first Bureau of Reclamation projects.

It provides irrigation water from the Truckee and Carson Rivers for the Lower Carson Valley near Fallon in western Nevada. Construction began in on Derby Diversion Dam, Lahontan Power Plant, and the "V" and "T" canals. The project is divided into the Truckee Division and the Carson Division, the determination based on the major source of the water (see project map, page The first construction specification issued by the Bureau of Reclamation, then known as Reclamation Service, was for the Derby Diversion Dam, which was Truckee-Carson irrigation District Facility Yard HAER NO. (Page 3) completed in June By September the Carson River Diversion Dam and main distributing canals for the Carson Diversion had been completed.

The Truckee Canal and a timber chute to the Carson River was completed in November (the chute was later replaced by one of concrete which discharges into Lahontan Reservoir).

This permitted the diversion of Truckee River water for use in the Carson Division for the first time in construction of Lake Tahoe Dam was completed in The United States assumed control of the dam at the outlet of Lake Tahoe along with appurtenant lands on July 1, pursuant to a decree of the united States District Court dated June 4, The operation and maintenance of the project were transferred to the Truckee- Carson Irrigation District on December 31, The Reclamation Act The Federal Reclamation program was initiated with The Reclamation Act of The Act provided that proceeds from the sale of public lands be set aside in a fund to finance the construction and maintenance of irrigation works in the arid West, and that expenditures from the fund be repaid by the settlers in a 10-year period.

Furthermore, each settler receiving title to land was to comply with the 160-acre limitation in the Homestead Law of The requirement of full repayment of costs by the beneficiaries was unique in public works programs and it contrasts with national policy at the same date which treated investments in navigation and flood control as nonreimburseable. The Reclamation Act does not spell out all of the intended objectives of the Reclamation Program, providing a livelihood and economic opportunity for people through western irrigation was the principal objective. But also important were settlement of the western frontier, regional and national resources, and the resulting increases in the economy and standard of living.

By law the program is restricted to the 17 contiguous States lying wholly or partly west of the meridian. The origins and purposes of the Reclamation Program were shaped by earlier legislation aimed at encouraging settlement of the West through agricultural development. The Homestead Act of enabled settlers to acquire up to 160 acres of land if they lived on it for 5 years. The Desert Land Act of permitted settlers to acquire up to 640 acres (later reduced to 320 acres) for per acre by reclaiming and bringing water to the acquired land within three years from the date of filing.

The Cary Act of was intended to allow individuals, industry and mutual irrigation companies the right to develop and irrigate desert land previously owned by the Federal Government, but it proved a failure because local interests lacked financial and engineering capabilities. Truckee-Carson irrigation District Irrigation Yard HAER No. (Page 4) Truckee-Carson irrigation District As early as July there were individuals calling for an organization of a water users' association to take over the Federal Truckee-Carson Project (Newlands Project). Shortly thereafter, in mainly as a result of drainage problems, an informal water users' association was formed.

In the organization levied a 5 cents per acre assessment on its members and joined the National Water Users' Associations that had recently formed. The goals of this organization were largely the same as the Truckee-Carson group and constituted a platform for complaints from all of the western reclamation projects, in late the first demands that the Government surrender control of the project to a local organization were heard.

in response to these and other criticisms of the Federal program, the Reclamation Service (Bureau of Reclamation) proposed an effective Truckee-Carson water users association in The Reclamation Service assigned an attorney to the Truckee-Carson Project to draft a Nevada statute that would permit formation of an irrigation district and simultaneously convince the users that they must bear the costs of draining improvement locally. After the draft version was released and modified by a committee of users, considerable controversy ensued over voting procedures that allowed each landowner to vote according to the number of acres held.

Despite the objections of the Reclamation Service, the bill was signed into law on March 22, The new irrigation district board took its first action in December with a request that the Reclamation Service prepare a drainage plan to use as a basis for contractual negotiation between the two organizations. A contract was completed in In the interim, the unequal voting procedures were removed. The contract for assumption of the operating and maintenance functions of the project was placed before the users in a special election on December 1, and approved by a narrow margin of 21 votes. The Secretary of the interior signed the contract on December 31, and the Newlands Project was in the hands of its members after 23 years of Federal management.

History of the Tcid Facility Yard

The TCID Facility Yard was originally built as part of the Newlands Reclamation Project, one of the first five reclamation projects authorized under the Newlands Reclamation Act of (National Register Nomination for the Newlands Project on file at the State of Nevada, Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology) . Construction on what was then known as the Truckee-Carson Project began in and Lahontan Dam, the major water storage facility, was built between and (ibid.). The project was renamed the Newlands Project in the same year that the maintenance yard was constructed at its present location. Truckee-Carson Irrigation District Facility Yard HAER NO.

(Page 5) The development of the yard by the Reclamation Service was to consolidate all of the main operations and maintenance activities at one locality. Equipment and supplies were stored in the warehouse structures. Tt served as a place for the fabrication of parts and repair of items related to the irrigation/ drainage facilities, vehicles and wagons also were stored and repaired in the yard, as well as automotive supplies. A railroad spur allowed for loading and off-loading directly onto a dock. All structures were meant to be utilitarian The yard was built on a 6.35-acre site on the Fallon-Hazen branch of the Southern pacific Railroad, near the Fallon freight depot (Newlands Project annual report for Situated on Blocks 23 and 24 of the W. W.

Williams subdivision (southwest one quarter of the northwest one quarter of section 30, Township 19 North and Range 29 East), the land was transferred to the United States on February 20, (Agreement, Williams Estate Company and the united States, Churchill county Miscellaneous Records, Book 11, page According to Newlands Project records, the buildings erected on the new yard site were mostly "built of materials salvaged from the old storehouse and sheds formerly located 1/2 mile west of the office and the shops formerly located at Lahontan. All buildings are set on concrete piers and are shingle roofed" (Newlands Project annual report for Whether or not any of the buildings were dismantled and then put back together at the yards cannot be answered with complete assurance.

The report does state that "the Lahontan shops, erected during for Lahontan Dam constructed, were dismantled and moved to Fallon for reerection on the new site" {ibid., pages Many of the timbers in the existing machine shop are numbered, suggesting that at least this building was, with the exception of the roof. At the Lahontan construction camp, all of the buildings had corrugated metal roofs, but the new facility yard buildings had shingled roofs (see, for example, photos and in Album one of Lahontan Dam photographs at the TCID archives) .

The Newlands Project Yards: The building history of what was first called the Newlands Project Yards is exceptionally well documented between and During this period, activities at the yard were included in the monthly and annual progress reports on the Newlands Project kept by the U. S. Reclamation Service. The first buildings were erected in (USRS Newlands Project, Annual History, These included a warehouse, machine shop, tool house/wagon shed, blacksmith shop, granary, stable, garage, harness shed, coalbin, oil house, nd a corral/stockyard complex (ibid.); a gasoline pumphouse and power saw shed were added the following year (USRS Newlands Project, Annual History, The locations of these buildings are shown on the attached copy of a November map of the project yards.

Truckee-Carson Irrigation District Facility Yard HAER No. {Page 6) On June 13, the original blacksmith shop was burned and rebuilt during July and August of the same year on the same site (USRS Newlands Project, Annual History, page With this exception, the map accurately depicts what the yard looked like at the end of The Early TCID/CCC Period: On December 31, the Newlands Project equipment and operation were turned over to the newly-organized Truckee-Carson Irrigation District (TCID) - the actual water users - and much of the detailed recordkeeping of the Federal Government stopped {USRS Newlands Project, Annual History, . The history of what is now called the District Facility Yard is vague after that.

Some annual reports were apparently still produced after and sent to the Commissioner of the U. S. Reclamation Service, but only a handwritten copy of the report could be found in either the TCID office or the Sacramento office of the Bureau of Reclamation, This report states that the stock corrals at the facility yard were removed in January beginning a major episode of change. The Civilian Conservation Corps a "make jobs" Federal program created in response to the economic depression of this period, established a base of operations in the Newlands Project to repair and rejuvenate the reclamation system, in the CCC built Camp Newlands (BR 34) on the site of the vacated stock corrals, moving or destroying all of the original buildings at this location Records, TCID Archives).

These included the stable, the harness shed, a concrete water trough, and the garage. The attached map of Camp Newlands (TCID Engineering Records) shows these changes and also shows a few other changes in the yard that took place between and Most notable are the construction of three new buildings - two gashouses and a supply house. In addition, the garage that was torn down to make way for CCC Camp Newlands was rebuilt farther south and called the TCID shed; the granary is now called the cement storehouse.

Beyond the The next glimpse of the history of the District Facility Yard comes from the attached copy of a map {on file in the TCID Engineering Office), which shows the development of the yard from to On this map, a car repair shop has been added and the supply house apparently moved south and was renamed the car supplies storehouse. A watchman's house and garage have been added to the northwest corner of what was Camp Newlands. records in the TCID archives suggest that the Camp Newlands complex was abandoned in and the buildings removed in in addition, two form sheds (it is possible that the intended word was "farm," although it appears quite clearly on the map as "form") have been built south of the warehouse, in TCID reestablished control over the entire yard.

Truckee-Carson Irrigation District Facility Yard HAER NO. (Page 7) The Late TCID Per iod: What has happened to the District Facility Yard since is illustrated by the attached copy of a March demolition survey plan. Several buildings were removed sometime between and These include both the original coal bin and the oil shed, the two "form" sheds, the old granary/cement storehouse building, and the new oil house. One building was apparently constructed during this period in the southwest corner of the yard and then torn down, as only foundations presently remain; no information about this structure could be located. The railroad spur line was also removed.

Nine buildings presently remain at the yard - the warehouse, machine shop, and tool house/wagon shed from the original Newlands Project Yard; the saw shed erected in the blacksmith shop built in the supply house and TCID shed constructed between and and the car repair shop, watchman's house, and watchman's garage erected between and In TCID moved its shops and equipment yard to an area south of Fallon. Since that move, the city of Fallon leased the buildings in the yard. Most of the buildings were vacant in however, with the exception of the machine shop, which has been subleased and is being used for its original purpose and the car repair shop which is used by the Fallon police Department to store impounded and other items. Impounded cars are stored in a yard west of the car repair shop.

HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION OF EXISTING BUILDINGS A more detailed history and description of each of the nine existing buildings at the TCID Facility Yard is given below. The Wa r ehouse According to Newlands Project records, the warehouse was erected at the facility yard sometimes between June and August of It is a large wooden frame building with floor dimensions 40 feet wide and 100 feet long. The walls are made of one-inch thick by 12 inches wide rough boards set vertically; the floor is made of two-inch thick rough planks. The roof is gabled and covered with wooden shingles. There is only one story, and there were originally three rooms, and presently two, in the building, one of which was used as an office.

The office is situated in the northwest corner of the building; its exterior walls are covered with horizontally-set beveled wooden siding, making this area quite visible to the casual observer. Three double- hung, one-over-one windows with a wooden sash have been placed in the office walls, two in the west wall and one in the north wall. A single-hinged door opens through the north wall into the office. The other room is used for storage and was equipped with racks and containers installed in October (USRS Newlands Project Monthly progress Report for October It is entered through four large sliding doors, two in the north wall and two in the south wall, and a single small-hinged door in the north wall. Two fixed Truckee-Carson Irrigation District Facility Yard HAER NO.

(Page 8) window in both the north wall and the south wall provide some light for the room. Additional light is provided by single double-hung windows in the gable pediments of both the east and west walls and a single-fixed window in the east wall. The warehouse building is surrounded on all sides by a loading deck or porch. At the time of construction, its cost was The Machine Shop According to USRS Monthly Progress Reports (July , the machine shop was built in July however, the Insurance Survey for the same year gives the date of construction as June The existing building is made of one-inch rough board walls, which are currently covered with a white stucco, and has a concrete floor 30 feet wide and 80 feet long.

Its roof is gabled and covered with wooden shingles; two metal ventilated flues are used as chimneys. The building has one story and two rooms, one of which was the machine shop and the other of which was the carpenter shop. Three one-over-one, double-hung windows with a wooden sash are set into the west wall. The north wall includes two large sliding doors, a single-hinged door, and five windows, all of which are four one-over-one and double-hung with a wooden sash. In the south wall are one-over-one double-hung windows and one two-over-two double- hung window with a wooden sash. One two-over-two double-hung window with a wooden sash, one double-hung, one-over-one window and a single-hinged doorway are situated in the east wall.

A small gabled skylight has been constructed on the roof with five-fixed single windows in both the north and south walls. A dormer-like structure has been built over the top of one of the double doors in the south wall; the same door has a heavy wooden beam framework set in front, probably once supporting a derrick or crane. The original cost of the machine shop was The Tool and Wagon Shed The Insurance Survey for indicates that this building was built in August however, the USRS Monthly Progress Reports suggest that shingling of the roof for the wagon shed was not completed until November of that year. The existing building has one story and four rooms - three enclosed rooms used as a tool shed and garage and an open room used first as a wagon shed and later as a car shed.

One-inch rough boards were used to construct the building and the floor is two-inch rough planks; the roof is gabled and shingled, and the walls of the tool shed end (the west end) are presently covered with a white stucco. The overall size of the wagon shed is 18 feet wide and 165 feet long. A single-hinged door is placed at the west end of the building. The south wall has five hinged doors and five bottom-hinged single windows, along with one fixed single window. The south wall of the car shed is open, in the north wall are ten single bottom-hinged windows with wooden sashes. The east wall has no windows or doors. No original cost is given. Truckee-Carson irrigation District Facility Yard HAER No.

(Page 9) Ttie_Blad<snuth^horj The original blacksmith shop was built in July (USRS Monthly progress Report for July but was burned on June 13, (USRS Annual Report for page It was described in the insurance Survey for as a one-story building constructed of one-inch rough boards and a concrete floor. The building had two rooms, a floor plan 34 feet wide and 40 feet long, and a gabled and shingled roof. The existing building is similar in construction and is 30 feet wide and 50 feet long. As in the structure, the present building has a gabled and shingled roof. Three one-over-one double-hung sash windows are in the north wall, along with a single-hinged door. The west wall has two one-over-one double-hung windows and a large sliding door.

And the south wall has three windows, all of which are identical to those in the north wall, along with a large sliding door. In the TCID map, the room at the east end is identified as the "iron room." The cost of the original, blacksmith shop was but the cost of the structure is unknown. The Truck Shed Just south of the old car garage and east of the wagon shed is a building constructed sometime between and It is identified on the CCC map as "TCID Shed" and on the TCID map as the "truck shed." The building is built of vertically-set rough wooden planks with no windows or doors; however, the south wall is open, except for wooden supports in the front dividing the building into five interior spaces.

The^Saw^Sjielter Twenty feet south of the machine shop still stands a power saw shelter built in November (USRS Annual History, Newlands Project, . The shelter was originally 20 feet by 20 feet with open walls, no floor, a ridged, shingled roof. Today, the building has a closed wall on what appears to be a western extension to the original structure; what is probably the original west wall is also closed, along with the gable pediments of both the north and south walls. Finally, a concrete floor has been added to the present structure. The original cost was Car Repair Shop Just west of the warehouse is a rather elaborate building that does not appear on any of the early records; it does, however; show up as the "car repair shop" on the TCID map.

Corrugated metal sheets are used for the gabled roof, and the walls of this rectangular building are horizontally set, tongue-and- groove flooring over studs. The west end has two large fixed windows, each Truckee-carson Irrigation District Facility Yard HAER NO. (Page 10) four-over-four with wooden sashes and the east end has a single fixed window, ten-over-ten plus two-over-zero, covering most of the wall. A single-hinged door is also found in the east wall. The south wall has three fixed windows, each six-over-six; two fixed windows, two-over-two; and two fixed windows, one-over-one, all with wooden sashes. In addition, this wall has a large- hinged double door and a single-hinged door.

Four hinged double doors and one large-hinged single door are set into the north wall, along with four fixed windows, two-over-two, and a single fixed window. The original cost is unknown. Supply House South of the repair house is another building that first appears on the CCC map. Here, it is identified as the "supply house." This structure has been moved south and designated as the "car supply house" in the TCID map. The building is similar in construction to the car repair shop, with a gabled, corrugated metal roof and tongue-and-groove walls. It has a single room and a half basement.

The west walls has one window, one-over-one and double-hung, and two single fixed windows, one of which is in the gable pediment; a hinged door covered by a shed-roofed porch is also at this end of the house. A double, side-hinged window is set into the gable pediment of the east wall. Four windows have been placed into the south wall, each of which is single and fixed with a wooden sash. Finally, the north wall has one double-hung, one-over-one window, two single fixed windows, and a hinged double door. The original cost is unknown.

Watchman's House Finally, the only structures of any kind existing in the old stockyards/Camp Newlands site are a house and garage, first appearing in the TCID map, where it is identified as the "Watchman's house." The house is mostly board and batten with a gabled roof covered with wooden shingles; it has an enclosed porch with a shingled shed roof on the south end. The south exterior wall has seven single fixed windows in a row and one open doorway, m the east wall are two one-over-one double-hung windows with a wooden sash; one single fixed window in the gable pediment; and three single-fixed window in the porch. In addition, the east wall has a hinged door with a gabled roof.

The west wall has two single fixed windows; one double-hung, one-over-one window; one single fixed window in the gable pediment; and three single fixed windows in the porch. Finally, the north wall has three single fixed windows, each with two wooden shutters, and one hinged door. The original cost is unknown. Watchman's Garage The garage is a rectangular wooden-framed building covered with tongue-and- groove flooring and a gabled roof with wooden shingles. A small shed-roofed Truckee-Carson Irrigation District Facility Yard HAER NO. (Page 11) room has been added to the north end of the east wall. Both the south and north walls have one single fixed window in the gable pediment, each with wooden sashes.

The shed-roofed room has an additional single-fixed window in the north wall and a hinged door in the south wall. A large-hinged double door for entrance to the garage is placed in the south end. The original cost is unknown. P^^EDJOMFICATION The proposed development of the Old TCID Facility Yard by the Nevada Department of Transportation for the city of Fallon will remove: Watchman's Residence Truck Sheds Car Repair Shop Electrical Warehouse Blacksmith Shop/Iron House Storehouse Car Supplies Saw Shed A new railroad spur will be placed in the approximate location of the former spur which was previously removed. The current project scheduled will be carried out in TRUCKEE-CARSON IRRIGATION DISTRICT FACILITY YAR HAER No. (Page 12 o D ^ t* 5 sf w "i bW 3) tO t*.

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