Whitney Reflections

A tribute to the early settlers of a western Nebraska village

Some Whitney area farmers had been irrigating from White River for more than 50 years, but by the 1920s, plans were afoot to create a comprehensive irrigation system.  A story about The Whitney Irrigation District was front-page news in the first edition of the Dawes County News, published in Whitney on December 21, 1922. A preliminary survey for such a system had been completed in 1921 by W. R. Chaloupka of Bridgeport, Nebraska, assisted by several local men.  In December 1921, the issue was put to voters and passed with only three dissenting votes.   George Lawrence’s history of the project is one of the best remaining sources of information describing the origins of the project, and we plan to add much of that history to this website.   A much shorter history was written several years later.  Thanks to his wife, Jennie Lawrence, many photographs documenting construction of  the Whitney Lake  project   have been preserved..