Shortly after their formation, the districts issued $1.9 million in revenue bonds to finance the dam and canal infrastructure that would supply the land. In 1913 the districts built Goodwin Dam, about upstream of Knights Ferry, to divert water into their respective canals. They filed claims for of Stanislaus River water, divided evenly between the two districts. In the early years, maintaining a sufficient water supply in the summer was nearly impossible, because the Sierra snowpack usually melts out by mid-June. Agriculture relied heavily on wells in the late summer when the river was low, and this could only support about of crops. The lower Stanislaus River was often completely dry in the summertime due to water diversions. The irrigation districts desperately needed water storage for the dry season, and a number of small off-stream reservoirs were built, including Woodward Reservoir in 1916, though their benefit was limited at best. In 1925 the districts issued $2.2 million of bonds to build a storage dam on the Stanislaus River. The original Melones Dam, completed 1926, was a tall concrete arch structure capable of storing of water, enough to irrigate of land for a single season but too small to provide carry-over storage for drought years.