One of the last stretches of the canal to be completed was called Gumbo Point, just south of the town of Magrath. This late completion is not because it was one of the last stretches to be started, indeed it was among the first. There has been some suggestion that the canal was sequentially constructed from near Cardston in the west to Stirling in the east and on to Lethbridge in the north. But this is not so! Indeed, construction was simultaneously begun at multiple locations along the canal routing, as per the original design of the day.
The digging at Gumbo Point was very difficult due to the nature of the soil encountered. When the clay-like soil was wet (as it often was during those early, rainy years), the soil at Gumbo Point took on an extremely sticky consistency, that made it difficult to clean from the equipment used in excavation. And when dry, the soil had a rock-like hardness that was almost impossible to extract with the hand and horse-powered equipment of the day.
Gumbo Point could not be avoided, for it was at the toe of a hill (the hill since removed by modern earth-moving machinery) around which the canal had to pass. Some have incorrectly suggested that the finished canal was opened in November 1899. But this is not so, for the excavations at Gumbo Point were not completed until April 1900. Besides, no one turns water into an irrigation canal in November. An article in the Lethbridge News (of the day) confirms that irrigation waters did not flow in the canal until the summer of 1900.
See the side map of the entire distribution system (dark irregular line) in 1899, and of the modern canal (hatched line) about 1950. We owe a great debt to those who undertook the original project, and saw it to its completion. We owe a further debt to those who have since sought to bring the benefits of irrigation to an even larger part of Southern Alberta.
+ existing photo
The digging at Gumbo Point was very difficult due to the nature of the soil encountered. When the clay-like soil was wet (as it often was during those early, rainy years), the soil at Gumbo Point took on an extremely sticky consistency, that made it difficult to clean from the equipment used in excavation. And when dry, the soil had a rock-like hardness that was almost impossible to extract with the hand and horse-powered equipment of the day.
Gumbo Point could not be avoided, for it was at the toe of a hill (the hill since removed by modern earth-moving machinery) around which the canal had to pass. Some have incorrectly suggested that the finished canal was opened in November 1899. But this is not so, for the excavations at Gumbo Point were not completed until April 1900. Besides, no one turns water into an irrigation canal in November. An article in the Lethbridge News (of the day) confirms that irrigation waters did not flow in the canal until the summer of 1900.
See the side map of the entire distribution system (dark irregular line) in 1899, and of the modern canal (hatched line) about 1950. We owe a great debt to those who undertook the original project, and saw it to its completion. We owe a further debt to those who have since sought to bring the benefits of irrigation to an even larger part of Southern Alberta.
+ existing photo
Then and Now: A Collection of Photos of Gumbo Point, Canal, and Surrounding Area
