Jim Bradshaw: Irrigation project failed when money dried up

Remnants of the Schell canal, “a great irrigating canal” that would pump water from Bayou Courtableau and send it into south Louisiana rice fields can still be seen near Washington in St. Landry Parish. It was the dream of J. Franklin Schell, who formed a company in 1906 to undertake what was called the largest engineering scheme ever in Louisiana. But he was not the first one to dream such large — and unrealized — dreams.
Welman Bradford, a civil engineer from Crowley, and state legislator Jonas W. Bailey Jr. were apparently the first to give serious thought to building a mammoth canal to irrigate the southwest Louisiana prairies.
The St. Landry Clarion reported in the spring of 1899 that Bradford and Bailey had raised enough money to begin work on “a huge canal, the head of which will be on bayou Courtableau … commencing one and a half miles north of Washington on the Wartelle plantation.”
Bradford, the newspaper said, was “an authority on the irrigation of rice fields,” who “for years … has been … figuring out excavation work, pumpage, etc.,” to map out “the most ambitious irrigating plan ever contemplated in Louisiana.”
The canal would be 250 feet wide and more than 50 miles long, and would be filled by four pumps pulling 33,500 gallons of water per minute from the bayou. That would be enough to irrigate more than 100,000 acres. Boats on “the immense ditch,” would serve a rice mill and warehouses built “six or eight miles apart.” The mill would handle 3,000 sacks of rice a day and employ 300 people.
“The plan is a comprehensive one and has been thoroughly thought out and planned,” the newspaper reported. “It is estimated that the work will cost thirteen million dollars but, according to Mr. Bradford and others competent to judge, the expense will be slight compared with the perpetual benefits to be derived therefrom.”
Still, that was a lot of money; $13 million then would be about $415 million today. Schell’s grand scheme cost about the same and he and Bradford were trying to find investors at the same time. Bradford was a better engineer; Schell was a better fundraiser.
Bradford’s St. Landry Irrigation and Development Co. broke ground first, but Schell was not far behind. The Clarion exulted in April 1903 that “the prospects of two mammoth canals through St. Landry Parish are glorious. … A few weeks ago, actual work was begun on … the Bradford Canal and now comes the cheering news that the one proposed by the Union Rice and Irrigation Company (or Schell) will be begun in the next ninety days.”
Bradford ran out of money quickly. Schell managed to build several miles of canal. In April 1911 his young daughter pushed a button and “powerful [pumps] jumped into action,” sending water into the short stretch of canal he had managed to build.
The pumps ran only a few years. Water flowed, but money didn’t. Schell built more than Bradford, but by 1915 his “largest engineering scheme ever” turned into the largest bankruptcy sale in St. Landry history.
You can contact Jim Bradshaw at jimbradshaw4321@gmail.com or P.O. Box 1121, Washington LA 70589.