Coming via Panama, William Semple Green (1832-1905) arrived in San Francisco on October 10, 1849 and in Colusa County on July 6, 1850. He was a ferryboat captain, mail carrier, surveyor, editor, writer, legislator, Surveyor General of the United States, California State Treasurer, irrigationist, and friend of man. On December 18, 1883, on an oak tree on the west bank of the Sacramento River, he posted the first water notice, stating that 500,000 miner's inches of river water was being diverted for irrigation of lands on the west side of the Sacramento Valley. In 1888, Green dragged a plow on the right of way of the proposed Central Irrigation District canal; thereby breaking ground for the planned 61-mile canal. He organized the Sacramento Valley Development Corporation to attract settlers for the soon to be irrigated land. His efforts over the years to bring water to the dry parched areas of the Sacramento Valley earned him the sobriquet "father of irrigation in the Sacramento Valley". The memorial is located near State Route 32 between Orland and Chico.

Click here to read about the restoration of Green's home in Colusa