Central Oregon Canal Historic District, Ward Road-Gosney Road Segment (Deschutes County, Oregon)

Title: Central Oregon Canal Historic District, Ward Road-Gosney Road Segment (Deschutes County, Oregon)
LC Subject: Irrigation canals and flumes Historic districts
Creator: Wiest, Levi David, 1859-1934 Kelley, John G. (Engineer) Redfield, Charles Monteith, 1871-1929
Photographer: Kliewer, Pat
Description: The nominated property is a segment of the Central Oregon Canal (COC), located in the Upper Deschutes River Basin, near the center of Oregon, in Deschutes and Crook Counties (Figures 1 and 8). The historic district begins 7. 75 miles east of the diversion point and _ mile east of the Bend city limits in Deschutes County. The district is 3.4 miles long, crossing rural land between the Ward Road Bridge on the western edge and the Gosney Road Bridge on the eastern edge. In the historic district, the canal ranges in width from 34' to 78', averaging around 50', and its depth varies from 1' to 9', averaging around 4' deep, depending on the amount of volcanic lava flows encountered, the terrain, and slope. The canal was built in irregular profiles, often wider and shallower than it was designed, in order to reduce expensive rock blasting and excavation. The canal through the historic district carries nearly the full amount of water diverted from the Deschutes River, 530 cubic feet per second during the irrigation season, April through October. The elevation of the canal on the western historic district boundary is 3,658 feet and water gradually drops about 15 feet per mile in the district, which is average for the entire canal. The historic district has unique rocky terrain, rolling hills and sudden drops in elevation mixed with flat stretches, over lava tubes. It runs through the southwest quarter through the northeast quarter of Township 18 South, Range 12 East, Section 1, W. M. (T18S, R 12E, Section 1), from the northwest quarter to the southeast quarter of T18S, R 13E, Section 6, through the southwest quarter of Section 5 and ends in the center of the north half of Section 8 (Figures 15-20). The historic district encompasses 50' on either side of the canal centerline to create a 100' corridor that includes the whole of the easement held by COID, and all the contributing resources. Most of the property owners in the district, where parcels range from 1 acre to 80 acres in size, maintain appurtenant water rights and use irrigation water. Much of the historic setting, including cultivated farms, a full range of irrigation system components, irrigation ponds and native vegetation, remains. The nominated canal, with its winding, character_defining, rocky, uneven canal bed and irregular slopes, cuts, and tall embankments is historic contributing. The historic design and materials, tool marks, and blasting drill holes are evident and tell the narrative of its construction through solid basalt rock flows that were blasted apart and moved with horse teams. The historic district has a high degree of all aspects of integrity. The 28 contributing structures include the historic main canal, a 215'-long concrete chute across a sink hole, 11 turnouts/headgates and associated headwalls (including Stearns Waste, a set of three headgates sharing a single headwall and counted as one resource), and 15 drops. The single contributing site is the remains of a 305'-long wooden flume (archaeological site 35DS3033). The 10 non-contributing elements within the nominated area include eight non-historic turnouts to ditches (outside the period of significance), a historic-period one-lane wooden bridge (outside the agricultural irrigation context), and a historic-period corrugated metal pipe that delivers water across the canal to a farm ditch (associated with the irrigation of a specific farm, and therefore outside the canal system, per the MPD). This nomination conforms to the general registration requirements and the description and classification of structures in the linear water distribution system of man-made water conduit and conveyance structures, as set out in the MPD, Carey and Reclamation Acts irrigation Projects in Oregon, 1901-1978, listed in 2017.
View: exterior: looking east with a tall berm with rip-rap on the north side in a deep, narrow portion of the canal that holds water year around
Work Type: agricultural structures
Date: 1905/1937
View Date: 2017-04-03
Identifier: OR_DeschutesCounty_CentralOregonCanalHistoricDistrict_0004
Rights: In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted
Dc Rights Holder: Oregon. State Historic Preservation Office
Source: Oregon. State Historic Preservation Office
Type: Image
Format: image/tiff
Measurements: 3.4 miles
Material: earth, stone, basalt
Set: Building Oregon
Primary Set: Building Oregon
Is Part Of: Carey and Reclamation Acts irrigation Projects in Oregon, 1901-1978
Institution: University of Oregon
Citation: Oregon State Historic Preservation Office, Oregon State Historic Preservation Office, http://www.oregon.gov/OPRD/HCD/SHPO/