Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration 

The environmental and economic disaster of the early 1930s ushered in the second era of irrigation development on the southern slopes of the Cypress Hills. In 1935 the federal government created the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration (PFRA) for the purpose of dealing with the water crisis in the West. In meeting this crisis, the PFRA reversed the federal government’s policy of not contributing to the construction of irrigation infrastructure. Frenchman River, Battle Creek and Middle Creek, a tributary of Lodge Creek (formerly Willow Creek) were amongst the early recipients of this new investment.