The aqueduct was intended to irrigate a section of southeastern Alberta by diverting water east from Lake Newell from 1914 to 1979, and is located approximately 8 kilometres south of the City of Brooks.

[1] The Brooks Aqueduct was conceived by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) as a mechanism to irrigate a portion of the Palliser's Triangle in southern Alberta.

CPR received a 12,000-square-kilometre (3-million-acre) block of land between Calgary and Medicine Hat as a payment for the completion of the transcontinental railway, which was divided into the Western, Central and Eastern sections.

[2] The Eastern section of the land grant provided access to the Bow River and the reservoir at the Bassano Dam, which was fed to agricultural operations through a series of canals and irrigation projects built by CPR.

[3][4] Hugh B. Muckleston, the Assistant Chief Engineer for the Department of Natural Resources for CPR was the first to envision the Brooks Aqueduct, noting an earthen filled canal would be inconceivable given the terrain conditions.