Soule's Ditch

Soule's Ditch. . , Local men, boys, and animals sweated long and hard to build the Eureka Irrigation Canal between 1884 and 1887. The long line below the ridge is a remnant of this early effort to irrigate semi-arid lands using the only reliable water source then available: the Arkansas River. Financed by speculator Asa T. Soule, the canal snaked its way over 90 miles from Ingalls to near Spearville, providing water to farmers in between., Plagued with problems, the canal was soon seen as a failure. Breaks in the canal wall, seepage, flash floods that destroyed a dam, a low river level from irrigation upstream, and drought led to its abandonment. People began calling it "Soule's Folly" and "Soule's Elephant." Attempts were made to revitalize the canal with pumps, but too much water was lost from seepage and evaporation, resulting in its final abandonment in 1921., [Background photo caption reads] Remnants of the Soule Canal wind snakelike across the Kansas plains.