In 1880, leaders of the LDS Church purchased a farm south of Portage from the Brigham City Cooperative, along with the unfinished Samaria Canal. The canal was to supply irrigation water from Samaria Lake in Idaho, since the Malad River was too alkaline for watering crops. The church began encouraging the Shoshone to move to the new location, which was named after Chief Washakie. From 1903 to 1929 Washakie fielded a baseball team which competed with white teams in northern Utah and southern Idaho, and received considerable local attention from both white and Indian press outlets.