Verwolf v. Low Line Irrigation Co.

In 1889 the West Gallatin Irrigation Company was organized to purchase and sell real estate, appropriate water, and sell and lease water rights. It acquired a large amount of land and on May 8, 1890, appropriated 6,800 inches (miner’s measurement) of the waters of the West Gallatin River. About *573the same time it completed a main canal which tapped the west bank of the river and extended in a general northwesterly direction some forty miles to a point near the town of Manhattan. This canal, with its branches and laterals, constituted the sole distributing system for several years. In November,…