George G. Anderson, Southern Alberta Land Co. engineer and irrigation expert, reported in London, England on February 1909, that it would be "extremely simple" to convert the Snake Valley depression into a great reservoir.

"Our land holding (in Alberta) is equal in area to the whole county of Surrey. Today, it is a bare plain, but given irrigation and small holdings, a large population is certain to grow up, and large factories will be established. There will be all sorts of subsidiary undertakings and we ought to be in a position to participate in there" stated Major-General Sir Ronald Lane, Chairman of the company, "...the reservoir has received the name of Lake McGregor".

The decision was made. Fred Mannix, contractor, began working in the fall of 1909. In spite of the optimism, there were many difficulties to be overcome. Quantities of raw materials had to be hauled 15 to 40 miles by team and wagon over virgin prairie. Lumber, cement, coal, gasoline for engines and supplies for many workers were necessary. Labor and horses were always scarce. Because mules were hardier than horses, they imported them from St. Louis, Missouri. They worked until December 16th, 1909 and quit because the earth was coming up in frozen chunks.

It was so dry in 1910 that the workers never missed a day of work from the time they started in April until the dam was nearly finished in August. By March 1910, about one third of the soil was in place on the dam and costs were running high. The original estimated cost on the whole system in 1909 was 80,000 British pounds, about $400,000 Canadian. By the end of 1912, they had spent about $5 million and financial difficulties plagued the company from then on. In the spring of 1912 the structure at Carseland washed out, causing death of a diver.

It was also the event which caused Big Jim McGregor to fall into disfavor with head office. It seems he may have allowed an official opening of the collapsed intake in September 1912. When he couldn't repair the intake without asking for more money, it's possible that he decided to become "lost" on the familiar prairie as he led the official party to the site. He was inadvertently exposed and immediately fired.

In 1929 he became Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba. "Big Jim' died of pneumonia at the age of 75. His portrait was hung in the Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame at the 1961 Royal Winter Fair.

On a high hill on the banks of the Bow, three miles south of Cluny, stands a cairn commemorating that day of June 22,1877, when the Indians forever gave up their rights to fifty thousand square miles of land in Southern Alberta. A few yards to the west stands another monument marking the last campground of Crowfoot, the famous Blackfoot Chief.

From this vantage ground a beautiful panoramic view of the country in and beyond the Blackfoot Reserve may be had. Directly below on a magnificent curve of the Bow, and surrounded by a verdant growth of cottonwoods and grassy meadows, lies the historic Blackfoot Crossing, the actual site of the signing of the treaty. On the other side of the river and stretching far to the south between two ranges of low-lying hills is the old thoroughfare of the Blackfeet, Snake Valley. It is about IS miles wide at this point but gradually narrows until it is only a few yards across at Coal Coulee, 40 miles to the south, where it again widens to join the Little Bow River.

The southern end of this valley has, since 1912, been occupied by the

Enlargement of old Snake Lake due to the building of two dams and has been renamed Lake McGregor. The lake itself is about 25 miles long and situated at the northern end is the Village of Milo.

Lake McGregor was named after J.D. McGregor, a stockholder in the Grand

Forks Cattle Co. His fertile mind spawned the idea of an irrigation system "so perfect that there is none like it anywhere in North America".