Walter Lubken

During these years, Lubken took thousands of photographs documenting the Reclamation Service's irrigation projects across the American West.

The agency also asked Lubken to photograph nearby towns and farms for a series of articles designed to promote settlement on land reclaimed from the desert through irrigation.

After leaving the Reclamation Service in 1917, Lubken left professional photography until the 1930s, when he photographed the building of Boulder Dam.

His images capture the technological and social advances made by Westerners, and convey that opportunity lie in the wake of the Federal projects providing irrigation water, flood control, and power to isolated, formerly barren lands.

After photography, Walter went back to a former career working as a dry goods store clerk, which occupation he apparently was more proud of than his time as a government Photographer, and died quietly in his home town of Boise some time in June 1960 at the age of 77 according to the 1 July 1960 Associated Press.