1

Only limited activity took place on the Creston flats for the two decades following the failure of the Alberta and British Columbia Exploration Company. Reclamation Farm and a few other isolated farms were as active as possible between floods. In some years, the flats were completely inundated with water; in others, only certain areas would be flooded. Sometimes, the flood waters would take months to recede; other years, the high water period would be relatively short.

These fluctuations did allow some agricultural use of the flats.

2

The Holben combine on Reclamation Farm.
1910
Creston Valley, BC

3

Wheat and grain crops were growing on the flats as early as 1910, though the amount of acreage planted was small.

There were a number of farms and orchards on the mountain slopes on each side of the Valley, and these farmers pastured their livestock on the flats in dry seasons, and took out permits to cut the hay that grew naturally on the flats.

4

Hay crops being harvested on the Creston Flats.
1915
Creston Valley, BC

5

"[1800] tons of hay were cut on the Kootenay Flats at Creston last year. The absence of water on the east side of the Kootenay enabled the haymakers to operate on acreage that cannot be worked in average high water seasons, and it was the low water factor that brought the total cut well up to the average of other years."
- Creston Review, April 8, 1927.

6

Flooding of the farms in the Creston Valley.
1915
Creston Valley, BC

7

Limited farming and hay-cutting did not, however, make use of the full potential of the Creston flats.

"There are approximately 40,000 acres of land along the Kootenay. At present this land is almost worthless, as it is overflowed annually by the flood waters of the Kootenay River, just as the land in Boundary county was overflowed before reclamation was effected on this side of the line."
- Bonners Ferry, reported in the Creston Review, April 12, 1929.

The continued high risk of flooding - the possibility of losing an entire year's work - discouraged many people from even trying to establish farms on the Flats. Reclamation continued to be promoted as the only solution.

8

The Creston Review reported on the plans to reclaim and dyke the Kootenay Flats.
1920

9

Throughout the 1910s and 1920s, residents of Creston met to discuss the benefits of reclamation. They formed organisations and committees, and took proposals to various levels of the provincial and federal governments. They hosted official tours of the flats and brought in experts to offer their opinions.

"Things are beginning to move in lively fashion in connection with the 10,000 acres of Kootenay Flats land that has been conceded the Creston Reclamation syndicate. Arrangements have been made that in undertaking the work it can be done in units to demonstrate that the dykes will hold, before proceeding to dyke the entire 10,000 acres. In case work is undertaken, it will hardly proceed until after high water in 1926, and it will probably be wise to wait the passing of next year's flood, in order to accurately gauge the quantity of water that will have to be handled."
- Creston Review, November 27, 1925.

10

Clippings from the Creston Review newspaper, 1910 to 1920.
1915

11

"The best day's work in the interest of Kootenay flats reclamation that has that has been done in the last 10 years was accomplished when the project was fully discussed with the Canadian premier. The Prime Minister assured the delegation that, upon his return to Ottawa, he will immediately give the matter his personal attention and take such steps as will bring immediate action."
- Creston Review, October 21, 1924.

Still, nothing happened, and the flats continued to flood.

12

Dredge in Porthill working on dyking the river.
1929
Porthill, Idaho, USA

13

An example existed to demonstrate what the Creston flats could be: reclamation was successfully carried out on the Kootenay River in northern Idaho, USA. By 1925, American farmers were getting very good crops off of reclaimed land.

14

Guy Constable
1920
Creston Valley, BC