Soon after the settlement of Hyde Park, the people wanted to get irrigation water from Logan River. They had no surveying equipment nor equipment for construction of the canal. Grandfather Robert Daines was the leader of the group. He laid out the grade for the canal from the river to Hyde Park. He started this by setting a flat (cream) pan with water in it on a plank and sighting across the level water surface to obtain the desired grade. Later a carpenter's level was obtained. This was attached to an "A" frame. The grade was obtained by sighting along the level. Generally, when using a level on an "A" frame, one leg of the frame was shorter than the other so they could site along the level and obtain the desired grade. The story was told of a group using this method in southern Utah that sighted with the short leg in the wrong direction each time. Instead of the grade being down from the river, it was up and had to be redone.
One of the comments of Frank Ashcroft was that the grade on the canal surveyed by grandfather was much better than the others that go through Hyde Park, but were laid out using regular surveying instruments. I have been all along the lower canal (the one laid by grandfather). There are sections where the grade is a little steep and scouring occurs. There are other sections where it is a little flat and sediment is deposited. However, the overall grade of the canal is very good. This is quite an accomplishment when considering the type of equipment used to obtain it.
The people were ingenious in the construction of the canal also. In the morning the ones involved would leave Hyde Park with their teams of horses and yoke of oxen hitched to plows or slip scrappers and work in toward the point of diversion from the river. While the animals rested, the men would work on the diversion works at the river. They would leave the river with their teams and oxen, plowing and scraping along the line of the canal, arriving back in Hyde Park in time to quit for the evening. When the diversion works (very simple one) on the river were completed, the canal was also completed and ready for conveyance of water.
The canal is the one which goes through Logan just below the temple hill and on Fourth North in Logan between Second and Third East there is a divider which divides the water into the upper and lower twin canals. The upper (east) of the twins is the one built by the people of Hyde Park with grandfather Robert Daines as the person in charge. The canal also passes the old family homestead in Hyde Park.
I was told that the reason for the twin canals (which still exist today--1975) was that the people could not agree on dividing the water through the individual head gates of the two canals. The division of Fourth North has gauges indicating the height of water in each canal. In my opinion this was a farce as those representing the two canals would use devious methods to keep the height of the water on the gauge up. This would indicate that more water was going into the canal with the high gauge so the head gates would be changed to allow more water into the other canal. I have personally crawled all the way through the east canal on Fourth North and dragged out bags of sand. These were placed there by some one form the other canal company. With the bags on the east side, the water would be backed up on the east gauge and the west gate would be opened to let more water into that canal. Rat holes were also numerous between the two canals which allowed the water in the two to equalize.
The following was related to me by my father, Joseph B. Daines. I also heard Frank Ashcroft (father of Del, Ernest, Eunice, etc.) relate it in a sacrament meeting. Governor George D. Clyde told it many times in meeting at which I was attending. At the annual meeting of the American Society of Agricultural Engineers in Houston, Texas, in 1951; at a winter meeting of the same society in Chicago; and at several other meetings throughout Utah. His purpose in telling the story was to illustrate the resourcefulness of the pioneers in developing irrigation systems. I do not know how he obtained the information, but it was essentially the same as related by the other two. He did not have names of the people involved until I told him the leader of the group was my grandfather.