By that time,
another group of promoters, almost exclusively non-Mormon from the Midwest,
planned to promote a project on adjacent West Millard lands. First organized
19 March 1908 as the Oasis Land and Water Company, a Nevada Corporation,
they entered into agreement with the Deseret and Melville companies
to procure a half interest in the Sevier Bridge Reservoir and its water
rights. The company aimed to develop lands under the Carey Act of 1894,
which authorized a state to receive up to a million acres of arid land
from the federal government on condition it was reclaimed under the
law's requirements. This was ultimately one of the most successful Carey
Act projects ever developed. Unfortunately, another washout of the diversion
dam in June 1910 not only discouraged many farmers but also essentially
ruined the Oasis company financially. Several Melville directors induced
former Utah surveyor General George A. Snow to investigate local prospects.
Favorably impressed, Snow brought outside capitalists including W.J.
Moody of Chicago into a new enterprise named the Delta Land and Management
Company, which assumed the obligations of the defunct company and brought
the project fruition. The Delta Company commenced elaborate promotional
activities in California and in the Midwest, and numerous land seekers
flocked to the area, usually enjoying special excursion rates offered
by the railroad.