![Undated historical photo labelled “Old Canal last of St. Mary River near Babb – 1909. U.S.B.R. [U.S. Bureau of Reclamation] project.”](jpg/lot-052_b4f27-03.jpg)
The rivets were still popping from the seams of the St. Mary siphon when Jennifer Patrick started crunching the numbers for repairing the century-old system that 18,000 residents of Montana’s Hi-Line depend on for water. It would take 3,600 feet of pipe so big men can walk through it without bumping their heads. They would need a new steel bridge across the St. Mary River and enough earth-moving equipment to restore a river channel completely buried beneath rocky soil eroded from the hillside where the siphon blew. They were short of one thing money couldn’t buy: time.
