Conceived by Henry W Rowley prior to his creation of the Billings Townsite in 1881 as part of his original plan for the financial backers, and was used to support future growth in Billings. Water comes from the Yellowstone River alongside of Westover Island, a few miles west of Allen Creek (across from the river rapids), and terminates above Billings in farmlands below where the airport is now located. It runs between Poly Drive and Rimrock Road west of 17th Street, and then on to about Virginia Lane, roughly following near Rimrock Road, before reaching its end. [This terminus location has since been drastically changed by the addition of buried pipes.] In early years its exit drained into the town through a series of small ditches (laterals), mainly along 29th Street, then south into the river. Name was formally changed to Big Ditch in 1900. Occasionally all of the ditches listed below have been referred to as being the Big Ditch. [There are presently about 22 local ditches.] The Big Ditch was originally constructed in a unique fashion, having the exit size almost the same as the entrance size, hence the nick-name. Normally ditches of this type are tapered along their length, as the water volume decreases along the way for irrigation. HW Rowley wanted an impressive ditch to attract farmers to the area so he built it wide. Today this ditch tapers in width, then it simply disappears from view before reaching the terminus.
sites.rootsweb.com/~mtyellow/pioneers/big_ditch.htm

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Elevation 970 m

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Location: Billings, Yellowstone County, Montana, United States

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