Archives West Finding Aid

Luther M. Winsor, born in Hebron, Utah, on January 21, 1884, spent his whole life working with water, irrigation, and flood control. With his experience and expertise, he was appointed to governmental positions, on both the state and national level, and he also served as a specialist to private companies. The bulk of his work with irrigation and flood control kept him in Utah, but he also studied and developed water programs in Chile, Iran, Canada, and much of the western United States.

His early life in Hebron, Washington County, consisted of learning firsthand about irrigation, masonry, and railroad surveying. In 1904, he registered at Utah Agricultural College (now Utah State University) in Logan. From the outset of his education, he focused on studying irrigation. For seven years he not only continued his studies in college, but he also gained valuable field experience such as working under the state engineer in Logan measuring water levels in canals and studying water use in crop production with an appointment from the United States Division of Irrigation Investigations. In 1911 he became the first person in Utah to receive a degree in irrigation engineering. In 1926 Winsor earned a master's degree from the University of California, Berkeley.

Winsor held an extensive and varied array of positions, most of which were concerned with irrigation and flood control. Shortly after he received his degree, Winsor became the first county agent in the West and served posts in the Uinta Basin and in Colorado, but he returned to Utah in 1913 to serve as irrigation specialist, a position he held for more than 20 years. It was in this capacity that he assisted in analyzing floods and developed the barrier system of flood control, in which debris is channeled away from flood waters.

Besides assisting in many flood control projects in Utah, in 1918, Winsor was called upon by the American Smelting and Refining Company to investigate irrigation and, as a result, increase food production for the company's copper mine camp in northern Chile. He would also assist the company on future projects in Garfield, Utah, and Black Lake, Quebec.

The project that Winsor himself deemed most important was his work in Iran under appointment from the president of the United States in the early 1940s. In Iran he served as director general at the Ministry of Agriculture. Winsor spent almost five years in the Middle East working with irrigation problems.

L. M. Winsor's varied career as an irrigation engineer is difficult to summarize. He extensively published the results from the many projects he assisted on or developed. On January 18, 1968, Winsor passed away. His groundbreaking work set the pace for flood control and irrigation in many areas of the West, especially Utah.