The Truckee-Carson Irrigation District was formed in 1918 to work with the U. S. Reclamation Service (now the Bureau of Reclamation within the U. S. Department of Interior) to eventually assume the operation and maintenance of the Truckee Carson Project (now the Newlands Project).

Prior to the turn of this century, Senator Francis G. Newlands from Nevada, was trying to establish irrigation districts in Nevada but was not having much success. President McKinley was not in favor of establishing agricultural projects in the West because he felt there was sufficient agriculture east of the Mississippi River.

In 1901, President McKinley was assassinated and Teddy Roosevelt became President. He was an utilitarian conservationist who believed that our natural resources should be used and not wasted.  He supported the efforts to establish irrigation projects in the West. On June 17, 1902, President Roosevelt signed the Federal Reclamation Act.  Senator Newlands was the principal sponsor of that legislation in Congress and became known as the father of the Reclamation Act. Through his efforts, Churchill and Lyon counties became the sites of the first federal reclamation project to be authorized under the new law.

In 1903, the newly-formed Reclamation Service began construction on Derby Dam about 20 miles downstream from Reno on the Truckee River. Derby Dam and approximately 32 miles of the Truckee Canal were completed in 1905. Water was then diverted from the Truckee River to be used to irrigate lands in the Fernley, Hazen and Swingle Bench area as well as supplement the flows of the Carson River for irrigation along the lower Carson River. In 1911, the Reclamation Service began construction on Lahontan Dam which was officially dedicated as complete in 1915.

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