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{{Short description|United States federal law}}
{{Redirect-distinguish|Newlands Act|Newlands Labor Act}}
{{Use American English|date=June 2025}}

{{Infobox U.S. legislation
| shorttitle        = Newlands Reclamation Act
| othershorttitles  = Lowlands Reclamation Act of 1902
| longtitle         = An Act appropriating the receipts from the sale and disposal of public lands in certain States and Territories to the construction of irrigation works for the reclamation of arid lands. 
| colloquialacronym = 
| nickname          =  National Reclamation Act of 1902
| enacted by        = 57th
| effective date    = June 17, 1902
| public law url    =
| cite public law   = {{USPL|57|161}}
| cite statutes at large = {{usstat|32|388}}
| acts amended    = 
| acts repealed   = 
| title amended   = <!--US code titles changed-->
| sections created = <!--{{USC}} can be used-->
| sections amended = 
| leghisturl      = 
| introducedin    = Senate
| introducedbill  = {{USBill|57|S.|3057}}
| introducedby    = [[Francis G. Newlands]] ([[Democratic Party (United States)|D]]–[[Nevada|NV]])
| introduceddate  = January 21, 1902
| committees      = [[U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources|Senate Public Lands]], [[United States House Committee on Natural Resources|House Irrigation of Arid Lands]]
| passedbody1     = Senate
| passeddate1     = February 28, 1902
| passedvote1     = Passed
| passedbody2     = House
| passedas2       = <!-- used if the second body changes the name of the legislation -->
| passeddate2     = June 13, 1902
| passedvote2     = [https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/57-1/h52 146-55]
| conferencedate  = 
| passedbody3     = 
| passeddate3     = 
| passedvote3     = 
| agreedbody3     = <!-- used when the other body agrees without going into committee -->
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| agreedvote4     = <!-- used if agreedbody3 further amends legislation -->
| passedbody4     = 
| passeddate4     = 
| passedvote4     = 
| signedpresident = [[Theodore Roosevelt]]
| signeddate      = June 17, 1902
| unsignedpresident = <!-- used when passed without presidential signing -->
| unsigneddate    = <!-- used when passed without presidential signing -->
| vetoedpresident = <!-- used when passed by overriding presidential veto -->
| vetoeddate      = <!-- used when passed by overriding presidential veto -->
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}}

The '''Reclamation Act''' (also known as the '''Lowlands Reclamation Act''' or '''National Reclamation Act''') of 1902 ({{USPL|57|161}}) is a [[United States federal law]] that funded irrigation projects for the arid lands of 17 states in the [[American West]].<ref name="NPS">{{cite web |title=Mission of the Bureau of Reclamation |url=https://www.nps.gov/articles/3-mission-of-the-bureau-of-reclamation.htm |website=National Park Service |publisher=U.S. Department of the Interior |access-date=15 March 2024 |ref=NPS}}</ref>

The act at first covered only 16 of the western states, as delineated by the 100th meridian, as Texas had no federal lands.<ref name="NPS"/> Texas was added later by a special act passed in 1906.<ref name="BOR">{{cite web |title=The Bureau of Reclamation: A Very Brief History |url=https://www.usbr.gov/history/borhist.html |website=Bureau of Reclamation |publisher=U.S. Department of the Interior |access-date=15 March 2024 |ref=BOR}}</ref> The act set aside money from sales of semi-arid [[Public domain (land)|public land]]s for the construction and maintenance of [[irrigation]] projects. The newly irrigated land would be sold and money would be put into a revolving fund that supported more such projects.<ref name="NPS" /><ref name="Stanford1">{{cite web |last1=Lilley |first1=William III |title=Appendix I. Summary and Analysis of Reclamation Act |url=https://newlands.stanford.edu/appendix-i |website=The System of the River |publisher=Stanford University}}</ref> These irrigation projects led to the eventual damming of nearly every major western river.<ref name="NPS" /> Under the act, the [[United States Secretary of the Interior|Secretary of the Interior]] created the ''United States Reclamation Service'' within the [[United States Geological Survey]] to administer the program.<ref name="BOR" /> In 1907, the Service became a separate organization within the [[United States Department of the Interior|Department of the Interior]] and was renamed the [[United States Bureau of Reclamation]].<ref name="BOR" />

The Act was co-authored by Democratic Congressional Representative [[Francis G. Newlands]] of [[Nevada]], [[Frederick H. Newell]] of the United States Geological Survey, and George H. Maxwell, head of the National Reclamation Association.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The George Hebard Maxwell Papers, MG 1, 1903-1905|url=http://www.azarchivesonline.org/xtf/view?docId=ead/asl/MG1GeorgeMaxwell.xml;query=;brand=default|access-date=2021-02-27|website=www.azarchivesonline.org}}</ref> Many of the loans made to farmers, funded by the sales of federal land, were never repaid.<ref name = reisner>Reisner, M. (1993), [https://psych.utah.edu/_documents/psych4130/Reading2.pdf Cadillac Desert] p. 111–119</ref> Amendments made by the [[Reclamation Project Act of 1939]] gave the Department of the Interior, among other things, the authority to amend repayment contracts and to extend repayment for not more than 40 years.<ref>{{cite web |title=SUBCHAPTER X—PAYMENT OF CONSTRUCTION CHARGES |url=https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2003-title43/html/USCODE-2003-title43-chap12-subchapX.htm |website=GovInfo |publisher=U.S. Government Publishing Office |access-date=15 March 2024}}</ref> Amendments made by the [[Reclamation Reform Act of 1982]] (P.L. 97-293) eliminated the residency requirement provisions of reclamation law, raised the acreage limitation on lands irrigated with water supplied by the Bureau of Reclamation, and established and required full-cost rates for land receiving water above the acreage limit.<ref name="1982act">{{cite web |title=SUBCHAPTER I–A—RECLAMATION REFORM |url=https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?path=/prelim@title43/chapter12/A&edition=prelim |website=United States Code |publisher=Office of the Law Revision Counsel |access-date=15 March 2024}}</ref>

==Background==
[[John Wesley Powell]], arguably the "father of reclamation",<ref>{{cite web |title=John Wesley Powell and Reclaiming the West |url=https://www.usbr.gov/lc/phoenix/AZ100/1899/wesleypowell.html |website=U.S. Bureau of Reclamation |publisher=U.S. Department of the Interior |access-date=15 March 2024}}</ref> began a series of expeditions to explore the American West in 1867. He concluded that the Western United States was so arid that it could not yet support extensive development, and government involvement in large-scale irrigation would be necessary.<ref name="Powell">{{cite web |last1=McNamee |first1=Gregory |title=John Wesley Powell |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Wesley-Powell |website=Britannica |access-date=15 March 2024}}</ref> Among his observations, he saw that, after snowmelt and spring rains, the rivers of the West flooded and released huge amounts of water and that for the rest of the year not enough rain fell to sufficiently support agriculture, and so reservoir dams were necessary.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Powell |first1=John Wesley |title=Monograph |chapter=Report on the lands of the arid region of the United States with a more detailed account of the land of Utah with maps |date=1879 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |pages=13–14 |doi=10.3133/70039240 }}</ref> The U.S. government saw too much economic potential in the West to heed Powell's advice, at the time.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rowley |first1=William D. |title=The Bureau of Reclamation: Origins and Growth to 1945. Volume 1 |date=2006 |publisher=Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Department of the Interior |page=70 |url=https://www.usbr.gov/history/OriginsandGrowths/Volume1.pdf}}</ref>

By the late 1800s, small-scale private and local farming organizations would prove the benefits of irrigation projects in the arid western states.<ref name="NPS" /> When it became apparent that an organized effort would be required to make agriculture viable in the West, Representative [[Francis G. Newlands]] of Nevada introduced legislation into the United States Congress to provide federal help and coordination for irrigation projects.<ref name="NPS" /> Newlands carried the bulk of the legislative burden and had a strong technical backup from [[Frederick Haynes Newell]] of the Department of the Interior and George H. Maxwell, head of the National Reclamation Association. Conflict emerged over whether reclamation efforts ought to occur at the [[state's rights|state level]] or at the [[Federalism in the United States#Between dual federalism and the New Deal|federal level]]. President [[Theodore Roosevelt]] supported the national effort and assembled the legislative alliances that made passage of the act possible. After several years of effort, the resulting act passed on June 17, 1902.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Lilley |first1=William III |title=Chapter 11: New Lands |url=https://newlands.stanford.edu/11-new-lands |website=The System of the River |publisher=Stanford University |access-date=15 March 2024}}</ref>

The 1902 act was later amended by the [[Reclamation Reform Act of 1982]] ({{USPL|97|293}}, Title II) to limit the corporate use of water and speculation on land that would benefit from reclamation projects.<ref name="1982act" />

==Summary of the Act==
The full name of the act is ''"An Act Appropriating the receipts from the sale and disposal of public lands in certain States and Territories to the construction of irrigation works for the reclamation of arid lands"''. The act identifies 16 states and territories included in the project: [[Arizona]], [[California]], [[Colorado]], [[Idaho]], [[Kansas]], [[Montana]], [[Nebraska]], [[Nevada]], [[New Mexico]], [[North Dakota]], [[Oklahoma]], [[Oregon]], [[South Dakota]], [[Utah]], [[Washington (state)|Washington]], and [[Wyoming]]. It requires surplus fees from sales of land be set aside for a ''"reclamation fund"'' for the development of water resources. It also requires the Treasury Department to fund education from unappropriated monies under certain conditions.<ref>{{cite web |title=Pub. L. 57-161 (Session 1; 32 Stat. 388) |url=https://uslaw.link/citation/us-law/public/57/161 |website=USlaw.link |publisher=Joshua Tauberer |access-date=15 March 2024}}</ref>

== Impact of the act==
Below are listed the larger of the irrigation projects of the United States, with the area reclaimed or to be reclaimed as of 1925. [[New International Encyclopedia|(1)]]  
* ''Arizona:''  [[Salt River Project#History|Salt River]], 182,000  
* ''Arizona-California:''  Yuma, 158,000  
* ''California:''  [[East Park Dam|Orland]], 20,000  
* ''Colorado:''  Grand Valley, 53,000; Uncompahgre Valley, 140,000  
* ''Idaho:''   [[Boise River|Boise]], 207,000;  [[Minidoka Project|Minidoka]], 120,500 
* ''Kansas:''  Garden City, 10,677  
* ''Montana:''  Blackfeet, 122,500; Flathead, 152,000; Fort Peck, 152,000; Huntley, 32,405; Milk River, 219,557; Sun River, 174,046  
* ''Montana-North Dakota:''  Lower Yellowstone, 60,116  
* ''Nebraska-Wyoming:''  [[North Platte Project|North Platte]], 129,270  
* ''Nevada:''  [[Truckee-Carson Irrigation District|Truckee-Carson]], 206,000  
* ''New Mexico:''  Carlsbad, 20,261; Hondo, 10,000; Rio Grande, 155,000  
* ''North Dakota:'' North Dakota Pumping, 26, 314  
* ''Oregon:''  Umatilla, 36,300  
* ''Oregon-California:''  Klamath, 70,000  
* ''South Dakota:''  [[Belle Fourche Dam|Belle Fourche]], 100,000  
* ''Utah:''  Strawberry Valley, 50,000  
* ''Washington:'' Okanogan, 10,999; Sunnyside, 102,824; Tieton (Teton), 34,071  
* ''Wyoming:''  [[Shoshone project|Shoshone]], 164,122

Much of the West could not have been settled without the water provided by the Act. The West became one of the premier agricultural areas in the world. Bureau of Reclamation statistics shows that the more than 600 of their dams on waterways throughout the West provide irrigation for {{convert|10|e6acre|km2}} of farmland, providing 60% of the nation's vegetables and 25% of its fruits and nuts.<ref>{{Cite web |date=January 19, 2024 |title=Bureau of Reclamation - About Us-Facts Sheet |url=https://www.usbr.gov/main/about/fact.html |access-date=2025-01-15 |website=Bureau of Reclamation}}</ref> Currently, the Bureau operates about 180 projects in the West.

Not envisioned by the act, Bureau of Reclamation dams support 58 power plants producing 40 billion kilowatt hours of electricity annually. Most of the large population centers in the Far West owe their growth to these power sources.

== Affected river systems==
* [[Colorado River (U.S.)|Colorado River system]]
* [[Columbia River|Columbia River system]]
* [[Missouri River|Missouri River system]]
* [[Rio Grande|Rio Grande system]]

==See also==
* [[Water in California]]
* [[Water in Colorado]]
* [[Water rights]]
* [[National Irrigation Congress]]
* [[Environmental history of the United States]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Ganoe, John T. "The Origin of a National Reclamation Policy." ''Mississippi Valley Historical Review'' 18.1 (1931): 34–52. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1897435 online]
* Golze, Alfred R. ''Reclamation in the United States'' (2nd ed. 1961) [https://archive.org/details/reclamationinuni0000alfr/page/n8/mode/1up online]

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20160319051330/http://www.ccrh.org/comm/umatilla/primary/newlands.htm Newlands Reclamation Act of 1902]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090215021833/http://www.usbr.gov/ United States Bureau of Reclamation]
* [http://www.usbr.gov/history/borhist.html United States Bureau of Reclamation History]
* [https://archive.org/stream/nationalmagazine23brayrich#page/198/mode/1up ''Millions of New Acres for American Farmers''], [[Hamilton Wright]], '''National Magazine''', November 1905 (with photos)
* {{cite web |url=https://www.visitthecapitol.gov/exhibitions/artifact/s-3057-bill-appropriating-receipts-sale-public-lands-reclamation-arid-lands |title=S. 3057, A Bill appropriating the receipts from the sale...of public lands...for the reclamation of arid lands (Newlands Reclamation Act), February 28, 1902 |website= Exhibitions ~ Legislative Highlights |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=U.S. Capitol Visitor Center}}

{{Theodore Roosevelt|state=collapsed}}

[[Category:1902 in American law]]
[[Category:Progressive Era in the United States]]
[[Category:United States Bureau of Reclamation]]
[[Category:Water in California]]
[[Category:Water in Colorado]]
[[Category:United States federal public land legislation]]