American Falls Canal Payroll
Bingham County's biggest payroll for decades came from the AF Canal
7/8/20261 min read
The payroll of the American Falls Canal (now the Aberdeen-Springfield Canal) amounted to over $5700 for the month of May 1910—adjusted to present day cash, that's over $200,000. Add to that $1300 for the Aberdeen Townsite Company payroll (the canal company was deeply attached to the success of Aberdeen) and you can see the significance of the endeavor at that time. If you go back four years earlier, though, to May 1906, the payroll must have been even higher, for the company put this call out for help that would primarily be required to construct the 'Big Fill' that you can now see to the north of the Grandview Road turnoff on Highway 39, just a couple miles past Springfield. One hundred four-horse teams and drivers at $6.75 a day. Fifty two-horse teams at $4.50. Another 25 laborers at $2.25 a day—the cost was enormous and may not have been replicated in Bingham County for decades.
