Dallin Webb, Utah State University
Sociology, Social Work, and Anthropology
Recent rediscovery of an ancient Fremont irrigation system in central Utah presents the opportunity to model the economics of Fremont irrigation agriculture. A significant cost of irrigation farming is the construction of a ditch to bring water from a natural source to the fields. We use an experimental approach to investigate the costs of ditch construction. Mountain mahogany digging sticks were employed to construct ditches under different sediment conditions, as well as a stream diversion into a ditch take-out. The experiments reveal a range of costs incurred for constructing different elements of the system.