Without the extensive networks of irrigation canals created by settlers of this region, farming as it now exists would have been impossible in this arid area. Residents created cooperatives to organize the use of the water, with families owning shares that gave them the right to irrigate their land on a scheduled basis. The water shares were usually sold with the land, though later, it became common for developers and others to try to buy up water shares from people who weren’t using them. An engineering masterpiece for its time, the Last Chance Canal was completed in the early 1900s to divert water from the Bear River to Gentile Valley.