Interest was heightened by the knowledge that the 162,000 acres of land already cultivated in the , where is located, were to triple through a great irrigation project inaugurated by . In 1930 it was well under way when the project was abandoned. An American engineer, Charles W. Sutton, long in the service of Peru, was adding to his fame and usefulness by undertaking to bring from the Huancabamba River, tributary to the Amazon, by means of a tunnel through the mountains, water to supplement the service of the coastal streams.
— ANNIE SMITH PECK