[Illustration: TO SALTAIR, ON THE BORDERS OF GREAT SALT LAKE, CLOSE TO THE CITY, GO THOUSANDS DAILY TO BATHE IN ITS STRANGE WATERS, TOO SALT FOR LIFE, TOO HEAVY FOR THE LIGHTER WINDS TO CURL, TOO BUOYANT TO SWIM IN SWIFTLY]
Hazen is also the junction point for another railroad, a fourteen-mile branch line to Fallon, the commercial center of the Truckee-Carson reclamation project.
[Illustration: PROMONTORY POINT AT THE EASTERN END OF GREAT SALT LAKE. HERE WAS THE JUNCTION OF THE TWO LINES WHERE THE LAST SPIKE WAS DRIVEN, BINDING THE NORTH AMERICAN CONTINENT WITH A TRAIL OF STEEL]
[Illustration: ACROSS THE SILENT DESOLATE SEA, THE TRAIN RUNS ON THE GREAT SALT LAKE CUT-OFF, THE BUILDING OF WHICH IS ONE OF THE TRIUMPHS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY]
[Illustration: THE PELICAN REARS ITS YOUNG ON THE LONELY ISLANDS OF THE INLAND SEA]
The United States Government has diverted the waters of the Truckee and Carson Rivers by a series of canals, reservoirs and laterals upon 250,000 acres of the bed of an ancient lake with deep rich soil composed of materials washed down from the surrounding mountains. Already water is ready to irrigate about 100,000 acres, of which a large part is Government land and the remainder either railroad or privately owned land which can be purchased at reasonable figures. About 50,000 acres have been settled upon and nearly one thousand farms more are ready for settlement.
[Illustration: LOOKING WESTWARD ALONG THE PATHWAY MADE FROM SHORE TO SHORE WHERE TIME AND NATURE WERE DEFEATED]
The Government has invested several million dollars in the project and guarantees the water supply. The public land may be taken up under the Homestead Act and it is the purpose of the Reclamation Service that settlers shall have farm units varying in size from forty to one hundred and sixty acres, according to the location, smoothness of the surface and quality of land. The average size of the farms is 80 acres. The intensive cultivation possible under an irrigation system makes it most profitable to till a farm of moderate size. The railroad lands are now on sale at an average price of about $5 per acre and other privately owned lands may be secured at from $5 to $20 per acre. The cost of the water system is assessed against the land on the basis of ten equal annual payments and is now determined to be $30 per acre or $3 per year without interest. There is additional charge for maintenance of the canal system, which in 1908 amounted to 40c per acre. The only other charges to settlers are $6.50 for a forty-acre farm and $8 for an eighty-acre farm, the Government fees for filing; save that if the farm is within the railroad grant limit the fee becomes $8 for a forty-acre farm and $11 for an eighty-acre farm. The filing charge before United States Commissioner at Fallon is $1.