Irrigation Canal Easements in Lincoln County, Idaho

Big Wood Canal Company has run this delivery system for well over a century

The canals and laterals that carry Magic Reservoir's water to farms around Shoshone and Richfield are controlled and distributed by the Big Wood Canal Company, which has delivered irrigation water through this system since 1910 -- making it one of the longer-running irrigation operating companies in this part of Idaho. The company (headquartered at 409 N Apple St, Shoshone) also purchased the Magic Dam hydroelectric facility itself in 2018, consolidating both the reservoir's power generation and its irrigation delivery under one operator. Each irrigation season, water typically begins flowing out of the reservoir to irrigators -- many of them in Lincoln County -- in early May, a schedule worth knowing if you're evaluating a parcel's irrigated-farming potential on a seasonal basis rather than assuming water is available year-round.

The canals crossing a parcel carry legally protected easements, not just infrastructure

If a canal or lateral operated by Big Wood Canal Company crosses or borders a Lincoln County parcel, it almost certainly carries an easement or right-of-way in the company's favor along its banks -- and Idaho law gives that easement two protections beyond an ordinary private easement. Under Idaho Code 42-1208, easements and rights-of-way owned by an irrigation entity like Big Wood Canal Company are not subject to adverse possession: a fence, planting, or structure that has encroached on the easement for years does not create any ownership right to keep it there, regardless of how long it's stood. Under Idaho Code 42-1209, no one may cause or permit an encroachment -- a fence, gate, structure, pipeline, utility, or landscaping -- onto the easement without the company's written permission, and the statute treats the ditch's physical existence as legal notice of the easement itself, so unfamiliarity with the exact boundary isn't a defense.

For a buyer, this means an existing fence line, tree row, or outbuilding sitting close to a canal or lateral on a parcel you're considering should not be assumed to be legally settled just because it's been there a long time. Ask Big Wood Canal Company directly whether the improvement sits within a mapped easement and, if so, whether the company has given written permission for it to be there -- and get the company's confirmation of the exact easement width and location for your specific parcel before planning any new fence, building, or planting near a canal or lateral crossing it.