This unique network of drainage channels was excavated to drain the original lakes and marshes west of McPherson and east of Inman. In 1916 Mennonite farmer John Schrag converted a 2,000-acre lake between McPherson and Conway into farmland by making a 15-foot-wide cut through a ridge to lead the water into the Blaze Fork Valley. Resulting floods in the Blaze Fork watershed instigated a domino response of channelization and additional drainage projects in the lower areas of the valley. This network of ditches and laterals is still in operation today, although some of the more flood-prone land has been developed into the McPherson Wetlands. A half mile east of 10th and Buckskin a bridge crosses the channelized Blaze Fork with laterals on either side of it leading into the main Big Ditch.