REPORT OF BOARD OF CACHE RIVER DRAINAGE COMMISSIONERS OF ILLINOIS 1905 COMMISSIONERS. W. A. Wall of Mound City, Ill., Chairman, Andrew Davisson, Metropolis, Ill.. Hugh H. Copher, Marion, Ill. Illinois Printing Company Danville, Illinois 1905 CACHE RIVER DRAINAGE COMMISSION. W. A. Wall, Mound City, 111., Chairman, Andrew Davisson, Metropolis, 111., Commissioner, Hugh H. Copher, Marion, 111., Commissioner, Chas. M. Gaunt, Mound City, 111., Clerk. Arthur H. Bell, Bloomington, 111., Chief Engineer, William N. Moyers, Mound City, 111., first assistant engineer, J. G. Hare, Bloomington, 111., second assistant engineer, John H. Sharp, Simpson, 111., special assistant engineer, William Martin, Metropolis, 111., special assistant engineer, James B. Wall, Mound City, 111., teamster, W. W. Browner, Villa Ridge, 111., chainman, D. W. Tarr, Mound City, 111., chainman, Thomas Hooppaw, Pulaski, 111., axeman, Frank Bernard, Cypress, 111., axeman, Barton Hale, Grand Chain, 111., cook. REPORT OF THE BOARD OF CACHE RIVER DRAINAGE COMMISSIONERS OF ILLINOIS, 1905. The history of the Cache River Drainage Proposition dates back a great many years. Under the Swamp Land Act of Congress, many thousand acres of low lands fell to Pope, Massac, Pulaski and Alexander Counties. With the proceeds of the sale thereof some efforts were made at drainage, but, owing to the great extent of the territory affected, and the lack of concerted action and well-directed effort, little immediate bene­ fits and no permanent benefits were effected by the expenditures. This was back in the '50's or '60's wlien fine unimproved ridge lands were abundant and cheap. Swamp lands were passed at twenty-five cents an acre. Nothing remains now to tell of those early efforts at drainage but the records, a few choked-up ditches and the recollec­ tions of the "oldest settlers. " As early as the '70's or '80's some Chicago capitalists became in­ terested in the swamp lands in the vicinity of Belknap and Post Creek. Under their direction, a survey of the Post Creek Cut-off was made to ascertain if that route were feasible as an outlet for the waters of the Cache Basin. For some reason the scheme was abandoned and nothing came of the project. Other private surveys have been made of some small sections and some local drainage has been at­ tempted. Four drainage districts of small area, three in Pulaski and one in Johnson, have been organized under the Farm Drainage Act of the State; but owing to the lack of sufficient speedy outlet for the water as a whole all these efforts at drainage have met with only partial success. Some prominent citizens and land-owners, realizing that a survey of the entire Cache system was of first importance, have, from time to time, within the last twenty years, agitated the question of private subscriptions to pay for such survey, but without success. These same citizens, together with those of all other classes, have kept the crying need of State aid in this matter constantly before our members of the Legislature. Responding to this demand, Trousdale of Massac tried to get a bill before the Fortieth General Assembly, and Martin of Pulaski again before the Forty-first, both without suc­ cess. Hon. Chas. M. Gaunt, member of the House of Representatives from Pulaski, in the Forty-third General Assembly secured the passage of the following: 2 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF CACHE RIVER An Act creating a -commission consisting of three persons to be appointed by the Governor of the State, whose duty it shall be to employ a competent engineer or engineers to ascertain the cost of straightening and dredging Cache River and make appropriation therefor. WHEREAS, A large area of land is overflowed by the waters of Cache River, to-wit: 250,000 acres or more, lying along the course of said river, which flows through the counties of Alexander, Pulaski, Massac, Johnson and Union; and, WHEREAS, This vast area of land is overflowed by the waters of said Cache River and its tributaries six to eight months of the year, there­ by cousing the land to be worthless, making it impossible to clear and till said land; and, WHEREAS, The waters of said Cache River, during the wet period of the year, leave the bants of said river and its tributaries, and cause destruction of roads in the low lands adjacent thereto; and WHEREAS, Said back waters stand for the greater part -of the sum­ mer season in sloughs and ponds and become stagnant and injurious to the health of the inhabitants of said territory and vicinity; and, WHEREAS, The dredging and straightening of the channel of said Cache River would confine the waters of said river to its banks and thereby drain and reclain the large area of lands above described as being overflowed by back-waters from said river, making said lands, which are practically worthless, valuable and desirable property, cheapening the costs of maintaining the roads of the counties through which said river flows, and immeasurably benefiting the sanitary con­ dition of said territory. The successful accomplishment of the work proposed will add to the wealth and taxable property of southern Illinois ten million dollars valuation, and open a new field for the in­ vestment of capital and the development of one of the most fertile sections of our great State. Therefore, for the purpose of making estimate of the cost of straight­ ening and dredging said Cache River, SECTION 1.' Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois repre­ sented in the General Assembly: That it shah be the duty of the Gov­ ernor, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to appoint three persons, residents of this State, who shall constitute a Board of Cache River Drainage Commissioners, who shall hold their office for a term of two years and who shall receive a salary of $500 per annum. SEC. 2. It shall be the duty of said commissioners so appointed, to secure a sufficient corps of competent engineers to survey said river and make a plat of same together with the territory affected and ascertain and make an estimate of the cost of straightening and dredg­ ing said river, so as to confine its waters within its banks at all seasons of the year and thereby reclaim said territory for agricultural and sanitary purposes. SEC. 3. That, to carry out the provisions of this act, there be and is hereby appropriated the sum of $10,000 which shall be used by said DRAINAGE COMMISSIONERS OF ILLINOIS. 3 commissioners who shall have authority to draw upon the State Treas­ urer from any appropriation made, in pursuance of the purposes of this bill, as the same may be required to defray expenses incurred, and who shall report to the Governor of the State all and singular, the items of such expenditures, together with the business transacted under their commission, such report to be made on or before the com­ mencement of each fiscal year. APPROVED May 16, 1903. In pursuance of this act, Governor Yates appointed the following named persons as members of this Commission on the eighteenth day of August, 1903: W. A. Wall, Mound City, Illinois, Andrew Davis- son, Metropolis, Illinois and H. H. Copher, Marion, Illinois. On the twenty-second day of August, 1903, the Commission met at the courthouse in Mound City,. Illinois, and organized, and elected W. A. Wall as chairman, Hon. C. M. Gaunt of Mound City, Illinois, clerk. On the sixteenth day of September, 1903, Mr. Arthur H. Bell, a civil engineer of Bloomington, Illinois, was employed as chief en­ gineer at a salary of $15.00 per day to make the survey contemplated by this act. Mr. Bell is a graduate of a Philadelphia school of engineering, was one of the promoters and the first president of the Illinois Society of Engineers and Surveyors, and is now city engineer of Bloomington, and county surveyor of McLean County, Illinois, and has had large experience as a drainage engineer where large territories were affected. On the twenty-eighth day of September, 1903, Mr. Bell with his assistants began the field work. The engineers were furnished with all needed assistance. Two chainmen, one of whom acted as rodman, the other as flagman; two axemen; a teamster, with team and wagon, and a cook. The party was furnished by the Commission with tents and complete camping equipment. The camps were located near Mound City, in Pulaski County; at Unity and at Tamms, in Alexander County; at Ullin, in Pulaski County; at Belknap and at West Vienna, in Johnson County, and at Riley Hindman's in Union County (the latter being a farmer, stockraiser and capitalist and who furnished the engineers and their help with a comfortable building during the cold weather in December, <L903, and to whom the Commission is therefore under obligations). On November 28, 1904, the chief engineer submitted the following report of the work as completed to that date. Also plats and profiles which see. 4 - REPORT OF THE BOARD OF CACHE RIVER REPORT OF CHIEF ENGINEER! CACHE RIVER DRAINAGE COMMISSION. NOVEMBER 28, 1904. To the HONORABLE W. A. WALL, ANDREW DAVISSON, H. H. COPHER, Gentlemen.—Having been employed by you to make the necessary surveys, plans and profiles, as provided by an act of the General As­ sembly to that effect, and said work being now completed, I have the pleasure of submitting my report upon the same. The survey was commenced on the twenty-eighth day of September, 1903, and was prosecuted at intervals since until the same was completed; the bulk of the work, however, being done in the fall of 1903.