Flume With A View Traditional Cache

"Flume With A View" is a cache that brings to light the importance of and challenges of bringing water to the people of Manson.  The people, companies, and other agencies that were involved in this process from about 1910 to today is huge. This water changed Manson from an arid land with little ability to irrigate the fertile soils that would become one of the worlds premier apple farming areas.

Irrigation water was once brought 14 miles in wooden flume lines from Big Grade Creek up lake of Manson.  These flumes were walked on a daily basis by people called "Ditch Walkers" who made sure that the flume was intact and free flowing. The water would be brought into a large reservoir called Antilon Lake in the hills behind Manson.  The final journey of the water from the flumes traveled through a tunnel in a mountain that separates Mitchell Creek and Antilon Lake, then into Antilon Reservoir.  From here, water would travel through another waterway that ran along Joe Creek and down into various orchards via wier boxes.  Wier boxes were the water boxes that farmers would use to flow water into the orchards and fields after tapping into the water system.  All of the gravity fed system was a masterful feat of engineering of the time. 

As the years passed, the system was upgraded a handful of times, with a major overhaul of the system happening through the US Bureau of Reclamation, which was approved by Congress in 1969 and completed in 1975.  This upgrade changed much of the old system to steel pipe systems that were underground, doing away with the use of wier boxes.  Additional changes to the system came over the years to what is now a gravity water system that serves thousands of acres of land in and around the Lake Chelan Valley, most of this in the Manson area.

The Lake Chelan Reclamation District, which was formed in 1917, also has the responsibility of providing domestic services and sanitary sewer systems to the district. For more history and information regarding the Lake Chelan Reclamation District, the water systems in the area, and more, please follow the link. http://lcrd.org/history_32.html

Please do not drive up to the cache on the remote access road, but park off the paved road onto the dirt road please. Especially during fire season, this could be a hazard and the local homeowners ask that Cachers please walk the short distance. There is no adequate turnaround available on the access road. Thanks for Caching Safely!!!