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Water opens a brand new book, she says. We have not begun to comprehend what could be in that book.

She speculates.

It is my dream to diversify, Jonsson related during a recent visit to her dryland acres five miles west of the Yellowstone River in Montanas northeastern corner. It includes food and maybe even pharmaceuticals (medicinal plants). It is a wide open area, a whole new world like when people first came here.

I want to be part of that, she says.

The early fall sundown gilds Jonssons land and dream with a golden hue.

It will take real gold to bring the project to fruition, but Jonsson thinks it is worth the effort.

Her dream lies in the reality of creating and operating an irrigation district. Jonsson and her neighbors have taken the first steps toward that goal.

The West Crane Irrigation District encompasses 8,120 acres. Two major hurdles must be cleared: the cost of the project must be within reach and the price of electrical power must be reasonable. Putting exact figures to both items is underway. The price of agricultural commodities But the determinant factor is the price of agricultural commodities, argues Craig Johnson, a member of the district.

I dont know if the ag economy can support it now, he said. It is hard to determine. Id like to have enough money to afford it.

According to Mike Carlson, coordinator for a 16-county Eastern Montana resource development group, a pivot irrigation system costs $600 to $800 per acre to put in place. If there is a high lift, then it can run $1,500 to $1,700 an acre, he said. A high lift refers to pumping water 300 or more feet vertically from the water source, in this case the Yellowstone River about a mile and a half northwest of crane.

While the Crane project is technically feasible, it must be economically feasible, Carlson emphasized.

They must grow a crop that brings a positive return, he said. If there was a city with a million people within a 100 miles, wed have more vegetable gardens than you could imagine in your life.

Carlson noted that in recent years individual farmers have increased the number of irrigated acres in the area, all of them sprinkler systems. There has been 10,000 to 20,000 acres per year in the 16-county region, he said.

Some farmers are experimenting with new irrigated crops such as potatoes and onions and agricultural researchers at Sidney and Williston, N.D., have tested other vegetable varieties adaptable to the region.

Jonsson would not put a cost figure on the West Crane project now. Talking about cost When everything is down in black and white, Ill talk about cost, she said. We have to make it affordable or we wont realize this dream.

The farmers in the district put up the money for a feasibility study which was completed. This past spring, a formal irrigation district was organized and the group received a $100,000 grant to complete a preliminary engineering study. The district is now in the process of choosing an engineering firm.

A consultant was hired to help guide the way through the maze of laws and regulations that affect the project.

It has its moments, assures Gary Amestoy, of Helena. But I am familiar with the bureaucratic maze.

Amestoy, a former employee of the Department of State Lands, said a number of hurdles and hoops need to be cleared. Some have been completed.

A couple of state laws were changed in the 1999 session, he said, which removed legislative approval for use of the reserved water rights and gave it to the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation. Also, irrigation pipelines were removed from the perview of the Major Facilities Siting Act.

Amestoy said the local conservation district had to give its approval for a pump station on the river and the approval of the Army Corps of Engineers is pending. The project would take 16,240 acre-feet of water each year from the river, April through September. An acre-foot is the amount of water needed to cover an acre of ground with water one-foot deep.

That stretch of the Yellowstone is the home of pallid sturgeon, which are an endangered species, he said. There are also threatened species in the area.

Another list of authorizations would have to come from the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, to go under its tracks; from the state, to pass under Highway 16; from the Bureau of Reclamation, to pass under its canal and a gas pipeline that runs through the area.

That is not counting all the county roads and utility lines it would intersect. Amestoy said.

Included in the project is 3.75 sections of state land which is leased to area farmers. The State Lands Board has not yet committed to be included in the project, but has indicated it would work with the lease holders to find a fair and reasonable rent rate so that the state lands could be included in the project.

Amestoy said that when the preliminary engineering design is completed and the total number of acres are determined, then the cost could be calculated.

Another big question exists the cost of electric power.

That cost is a major obstacle to the project in Amestoys mind.

If this was a Bureau of Reclamation project, the farmers would qualify for a power rate set under the Pick-Sloan, he said.

The Flood Control Act, known as Pick-Sloan for its sponsors, was enacted by Congress in the darkest days of World War II in 1944.

The act provided for the construction of a series of dams on the upper Missouri River in order to control yearly flooding on the lower reaches of the river. A major aspect of the act was the promise that the Upper Missouri states Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota were to get federal funding for irrigation projects. The money for such efforts ended in the early 1980s when Congress halted the Garrison Diversion Project in North Dakota.

Under Pick-Sloan, irrigators were supposed to get reduced-cost electric power from the dams.

Says Dwight Thiessen, We need funding at low interest and a reduced price for electricity to make this work.

But right now the hindrance is the poor farm economy, he said. Even under the best of conditions, he estimates it would take at least two generations to pay off the cost of the project.

Thiessen, like many agriculturist these days, is not sure the next generation wants to or can afford to stay on the farm. One son is finishing a degree in electrical engineering, a second is finishing high school, a daughter likes being on the farm.

Craig Johnson agrees that Pick-Sloan power would be a big help.

He has some concerns, however, that the effort be basically private.

It is private land now, and it should be private land when it is done, he said. We should find a way to develop it privately.

Johnson runs a diverse farming/ranching operation now on dryland that is dependent on rainfall.

I just harvest corn for silage that topped 15 ton an acre, he said. While five to six tons are normal, he remembers a year that produced one ton an acre.

He does believe that project should be done all at once or not at all.

One of original supporters for the project is now absent.

Dale Edam, Sr., who now farms near Worden, says he still thinks the West Crane bench is a good place to irrigate.

A year ago, Edam sold his Crane-area farm to his son and moved upstream on the Yellowstone River about 250 miles.

I guess I got cold feet, he said. There were too many unknowns: the price of energy, the future of the Holly (sugar) plant, the possibility of a (food) processing plant in the region.

I was thinking of my son and grandson, maybe there were too many obstacles to this project.

Edam added that maybe the people involved might not be ready for it. There would be a tremendous capital investment for new machinery for irrigated agriculture.

That is choice pivot country out there, he said. Pumping the water so far is a drawback, but I hope it goes through. I hope the people get the education they need to do it.

Charlene Jonsson readily concedes there are many obstacles to her dream.

Overcoming obstacles has been a feature of her life, however. About a decade ago, her husband decided to return home to Europe, leaving her with a son and daughter and a large farm to run.

She kept the farm because her son, Kjeld, now 22, wanted to be nothing but a farmer. A recent graduate in agronomy from the University of Minnesota-Crookston, Kjeld is a full-time partner with his mother in the operation of their irrigated farm a pheasant flight from the river. The daughter, Amie, 20, studies psychology at Lake Superior State in Michigan.

In her spare time, Jonsson teaches high school history at Savage.

She remains focused on the horizon and the irrigation project.

I have had the advantage of going through some tough times, Jonsson said. That made me this way.

It is the things we can do for other people that will bring joy, she said.