In the late 1800s, Idaho Territory sought to attract homesteaders to farm the Boise Valley, then a dry sagebrush desert, and a young engineer, Arthur Foote, designed a canal system to bring Boise River water into the valley and extend irrigation canals as far as Canyon County. The New York Canal Project began in 1882, but after many financial and technical obstacles it was not completed for eighteen years, and when it opened in 1900 its volume was only 300 cfs instead of the originally planned 4500 cfs. In 1904, the U.S. Reclamation Service took control, rebuilt the canal, lined it with concrete, and added a reservoir and head gate. The Diversion Dam complex opened in 1909, but severe drought that year made the reservoir inadequate, leading to construction of Arrowrock Dam 17 miles upriver. Gravel from nearby pits was used in construction, and to move gravel from the Diversion Dam pit to the Arrowrock site, the government built and operated the Boise & Arrowrock Railroad from 1911 through 1915; it was abandoned in 1916 and became part of the Intermountain Railway, which operated until 1935. Hydroelectric power was not part of the original Diversion Dam construction but was added in 1912 to provide power for Arrowrock Dam, and after Arrowrock Dam was completed in 1915, the Diversion Dam electric plant was sold as surplus.