In the desert, water is king. Prior to the arrival of irrigation canals in 1906, the Central Oregon region that would become Redmond was little more than a collection of determined settlers, many living in tents, bent on proving up their Carey Act homesteads. By 1910, the Redmond Spokesman, one of two newspapers publishing in the newly incorporated town, was bragging, "Redmond is situated in the heart of the best irrigated farming section in Central...