RUPERT, Idaho — Although the technology is more than a century old, two wooden scoop wheels are still vital to the Minidoka Irrigation District in southeastern Idaho.

MID Manager Dan Davidson points them out while leading tours in the district near Rupert, where 26 full-time employees provide water for more than 77,225 irrigated acres through more than 400 miles of canals, laterals, pipelines and drainage systems.

The scoop wheels, designed and installed in 1903, are still relied on to lift water as much as 4 feet to flow into canals.

“We’re proud to continue operations that pay respect to our predecessors,” he said. “As far as I know, the two in our system are the only ones of their kind still in use statewide. They’re amazing and move a lot of water with little energy.”

A 30 horsepower motor powers a wheel, enabling it to move 10 to 40 cubic feet per second of water with a daily average of 25 cfs.

“The wood has been replaced several times, and the structure continues to play a crucial role in water delivery,” Davidson said.

One wheel south of Rupert is behind Juliene Kerbs’ home, where her grandparents, Charlie and Anna Swanson, homesteaded in 1905.

“It’s amazing that it’s kept going all these years and is a technology that still works fine,” said Kerbs, 80, who still lives on the family farm. “Homesteaders had amazing stamina and optimism to clear the land. When they got here, there was nothing but sagebrush.”

On their 80-acre homestead, they eventually raised alfalfa, beans, sheep, and cows.

Her grandparents were among three families who moved to Idaho from Bisbee, Ariz., where they had been working in mines.

“Somehow they heard there was land available here,” she says. “They put their families on the train and rode up to Minidoka. All three families homesteaded near each other.”

Another key to efficiency in the irrigation district is the transfer of title from the Bureau of Reclamation to MID in 2021, Davidson said. MID and the neighboring A&B Irrigation District were the first in Idaho and among the first four nationwide to transfer title after farmers operated and maintained the infrastructure and gradually repaid the Bureau of Reclamation for building the irrigation systems.

The title transfer removed a layer of administration, streamlining operations, he said. It also has enabled the districts to obtain financing from several sources and to convey water for entities outside the district.

The two districts encompass Minidoka and Cassia counties, where farmers grow sugar beets, potatoes, beans, corn, alfalfa, wheat and malt barley. Relying on the irrigation districts, they have created an area known as “Idaho’s breadbasket” with an economic impact of more than $1 billion, according to the 2017 Census of Agriculture.