NSID History

"To have an irrigation system, first you must have a water right. In 1880, two men, B.F. Young and John Stone from Tacoma and Puyallup, both interested in hop culture became interested in the development of the Selah Valley. Young and Stone went up the Naches River about thirty miles from Yakima and filed a water right of 800 cubit feet."  
Excerpt from "The Selah Story: History of the Selah, East Selah and Wenas Valley in Yakima County, Washington", Selah Valley Optimist. Lince, Robert S. (1984) 

"Prosperity and optimism in the early 1890's gave way to stagnation and financial stress by the mid 1890's which forced the Selah Valley Ditch Company into receivership by mid 1896. The ditch was then purchased and reorganized under the Selah Valley Company which was subsequently succeeded by the Selah Development Company. In 1910 the ditch was reorganized again under the Selah Valley Water Users Association. This organization operated the Selah Ditch until the present Naches-Selah Irrigation District was formed in 1916."
Excerpt from the Engineering Report for Water Rights Claim by RE Acquavella, et al. (1990)

"They also purchased thousands of acres of land in the Selah Valley from Northern Pacific, in hopes of selling the parcels for a sizable return once irrigation was underway. To make it all possible, the company dug a canal paralleling the river and constructed a wooden log flume to carry water over steep terrain. Due to the canal's length, inadequate engineering of irrigation structures and failure to sell the parcels, the Selah Ditch Company and its assets were for decades plagued by serious financial problems, which eventually ruined Stone and forced him out of business."
Excerpt from "Historic Context Statement: Development of Private Irrigation Systems in the Upper and Central Yakima Basin, Washington." Historical Research Associates. (September 2010)

"Among the more important developments made about this time were the Yakima Valley (or Congdon) and the Selah Valley canals, both of which were completed in 1894. The construction of these two canals to irrigate valuable bench lands ... may be considered the beginning of the commercial fruit-growing industry in the valley, although some fruit was cultivated as early as 1870."
Excerpt from "Profile Surveys of Snoqualmie, Sultan, and Skykomish Rivers, Washington", Department of the Interior, United States Geological Survey. (1912)

The Naches-Selah Irrigation District was organized under RCW Title 87, Irrigation Laws of the State of Washington on April 3, 1916 and was incorporated on May 24, 1916 from the assets and holdings of the Selah Valley Water Users Association. The first board of directors included Walter Cliff, E.V. Taylor and Walter Rowe.

The assessment in February 1916 was set at $0.20 per inch, with those paying before March 1 receiving a 3% discount.