Operation Waterway: The Lodgepole Creek Flume

Behold a 180 foot galvanized steel flume that dominates the terrain like a heavy duty bridge for water. This setup is light years ahead of a pathetic garden hose. It represents a 1912 engineering feat constructed by Patrick Maginnis as part of the Bay State Irrigation Canal in rural Kimball County, Nebraska.

The structure is tasked with the dirty work of crossing a draw of Lodgepole Creek. It holds its position along West Highway 30 in Oliver. It stands as a permanent monument to the days when moving water was treated as a tactical operation against hostile terrain.

This hunk of metal managed to secure a spot on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994. The officials claimed it was the best preserved and most visible of the remaining aqueduct sections in the area. That is just a polite way of saying it is the only one that survived while the rest of the neighborhood surrendered to decay.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons