H. Lloyd Miller - 1883-1963

H. Lloyd Miller - 1883-1963. . , Community leader and Father of the Roza Irrigation Project., From the first settlement of the Lower Yakima Valley, there was a dream to build a "high line canal" to irrigate lands above the Sunnyside Valley Irrigation canal. The vision for Roza water may never have come to fruition but for energy, persistence, and perseverance of Lloyd Miller. Success became reality because at his own expense he met many times with state and federal agencies and legislators, and twice with President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He made the case that opening vast acreage of the Roza was the right way to create national wealth through job creation and farm production. The Roza Project was approved by the legislatures in 1935 and water reached the land in 1941. This statue depicts Lloyd standing in the canal at its head-waters as the first water flowed into the canal from the Yakima River at the Roza Dam. The entire 72,000 acre project was completed in 1951., There were few constructive community activities that happened in Sunnyside without the influence and support of this energetic leader., Artist: Kurt Pierson, Sunnyside, Washington , Artisan: Norman Arts Studio, Enterprise, Oregon