The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1885-07-12
The Work Assigned Lieuten-
ant Willard Young.
RESPONSIBLE POSITION
so,ne Facts and Figures conesrning
Cascade Looks on the Cui-
umbfa River.

who profess to be more or less familiar
with the movements of Lieutenant
Willard Young, have ANYTHING like a
definite knowledge OF the responsible.
ties which the government recently in
trusted to him when assigning to his
charge the immense and costly works
at Cascade Locks Oregon.
1t was in the Autumn of 1888. and
while still enjoying the felicitiess of his
furlough- at home, thar. Lieutenant
Young received orders from Washing
ton to report for immediate duty to
Captain Powell at Portland, Oregon !;
and lie proceeded thence without de-
lay. He was at once initiated into his
duties at The Locks, and, succeeding
Captain Price, in a very few days as
sumed charge of the entire works,
shortly afterwards being joined by Mrs.
Young and their emily child. ~
The Cascades of the Columbia River,
where The Locks are being constructed,
occupy the stream at close intervals
for distance of some SIX miles, and
are situated not more than forty miles
up the river from Portland, where. the
officer in command of the Pacific Coast
distr;cthas his headquarters. But for
this extraordinarY interruption, the
Columbia. fora distance of more than
go miles would admit of navigation at
al seasons of the year, being almost
Iake-like in its smoothness, except where
these remarkable rapids or cascades ap-
pear; and their presence has made
several miles of railway transfer, ON
the Washington side of the river q
positive necessity in order that the sixty
miles or more of beautiful water above
The. Locks may be utilized for traffic.
To remove these serious distractions to
navigation and to do away with the ex-
pense and Inconvenience of railway
transfer was the object of 3the govern
mentwhen the first survey was made
in 1878, and up TO the present season
very nearly 81 100000 has been
appropriated by Congress and expended
on the work, with little more than a
commencement having been accom-
plished, as may be inferred from the
fact that careful estimates call for
81 sos, 397 with which to complete it.
. The plan contemplates first, the re-
moval of the projecting reefs and rocks
which in places so divert the course OF
the water as to contract it into a mar
row, rushing, foamlng torrent. This
work will extend over the greater part
of the cascades, leaving put a short dis
tance to be covered by the canals or
locks. The blasting out of the river
bed is undoubtedly the least, expensive,
while it is Just as surely the most dang
erous part of the work, several lives
having already been lost during the five
or six wears it has been in progress.
The Locks, of which there are two, for
high, and low water, will be 462x9O feet
and will have a lifting capacity OF "a
feet. Nothing but very crude idea OF
the immensely of these constructions
can be gathered from the mere quoting
of figures, as to how many cubic yards
of masonry will be necessary in the
work. but q comparative knowledge or
idea can be had, by those who have
steamed up the Ohio River to LOUIS
vile, Kentucky from the fact that the
locks there. the enlargement of which
aiene occupied seven years and.e a
million and half dollars. are consider
ably smaller than those on the Col
umbia. The dressed stone required for
the walls OF the Cascade Locks would,
if piled up on the whole area of the
Temple Block in, Salt Lake City, make a
solid column much higher than the
Temple is at present, Owing to the ter
rible Iauctuation of the stream at high
and low water periods, it is impossible
to carry on the work longer than few
months in each year, and only during
midWinter, when the water is lowest,
can any really effectual progress be
made, thus involving the seyerest labor
and exposure The extreme fall from
high to low water is not less than fifty
I four feet, owing to the remarkable mar
rowness of the river at this point, which
at the low water actually reaches GOO
feet and the current is accelerated to a
speed of eighteen miles per hour.-a
very fair comparison with the record OF
the Utah Central Railroad. AS the
| time approaches for the annual rise, it
becomes necessary every season to re-
move the entire plant of derricks
steam engines and boiiers-of which
there are at least ourleen-tramways
| CARS, tcJC. n COMPARISON VI uSul e
shows that the Mississippi at its mouth
discharges less quantity of water thar
does the Columbia. at this point. and ii
must be remembered, too, that the Gas
cades are distant something like ont
! hundred and sixty miles from the
| mouth of the Columbia, which receive:
/ immense Tributaries. such as the Viii
iiamette. Sandy, Cowlitz and other goot
sized rivers before it empties into TIN
Pacific Ocean. Of the $50 to 200 mel
employed on the works. at low water
only very few have families at tn,
Locks. the greater part OF them oein:
provided for in convenient quarter
erected by thegovernnient. DR.. Sineade
a genial gentleman and a graduate o
West Point, who like many other gal
! liant. officers of the South lost favor witt
| the governm mt in the War OF the Re
bellion, has charge OF The hospital, on
has little active duty, owing 10 the sal
ubrious climate and the scarcity
7 III af