Arizona weekly citizen., 1888-02-18
WATER STORAGE.
The Plains of the Elevated Plateau
 of Nevada Made to Blossom.
COMPLETE SUCCESS OF AN IMPORT ANT ESrERPRIsE DEMONSTRATED
Immenss Crops of Alfalfa Grown upon Lsnds Considered by the Gov ernment Not Worth
 Surveying.

8, Coast, especially in Southern Oslifornia e Nevada and Arizona. Many fsr-HghteC IT men, both east and vest, are now turn Is ing their sttention to ii and . bill hsl v been introduced in Congress by Senato F. Stewart of Nevada, providing for topo- s xrsphicsl and hydrogrsphical survey for the purpooee of asoertaininR vhs e waters can be stored in the mountaipl r. and what lands irrigated thereby. Whil,
 he value of water storage has never beeI
 questioned, doubts have been expressed B ss to the prscticsbiliy of successfully . storing large bodies of water ID ths
 mountains sud irrigstins the lands below
 That suoh enterprises can be successfully ' carried out has been fully demonstrated !, by T. ID. Parkinson and Robert \. Graves ' of the Nevada Land snd Cattle Company
 on Willow creek. in Elks county, Nevada
 Mr. Psrkinson is now stopping si
 ihe Palace Hotel with his family, and has been interviewed upon thIs subject : When questioned about the great reser- ' voir which has been constructed under D his direction on Willow creek, be sad 2 that he did not care Co ssy much about ' his own enterprise, lest it should be
 supposed that he, or the company with r which he was connected, had particular E interest ID giving publicity to the results . of the,r work. Such WAS not the case, as they oid not have s foot of land that they would sell and had DO object in sd- E vertislng their business. He vss, how E ever greatly interested in the question ' of water storage. as he was among the
 very first to attempt it on e large scale ' and 1t had been almost n hobby with him for many years.
 HOW THE IMPORTANT PRoyEcr oRIe- MATED.
 What first induced you Co look into
 this question Ot water storsgeT asked
 the reporter.
 "I was . oivIl engineer, connected
 with the Land DepsrtrDent, ID the
 state of Nevsds," replied Mir. Parkinson.
 "ln the course Ot my duties I saw sll
 hose large bodies of land which were 3D.
 psrently rich, yet perfectly vslueless
 eithout irrigation. l saw, too that ID
 many places ID the mountains, dams
 oould be constructed st 6 zsll expense,
 capable of storing immense bodies of
 water. I associated with ms Robert N
 Graves. a mining man, and we built 6
 dam on Willow creek. That dam was
 washed away. on account of 6 fault ID
 its construction, and We found ourselves without sufficient capital to rebuild it.
 We endesvored 10 interest capitalists on
 bis coast in this matter, bu. failed. We | met with no better success ID the east, | and then we vent 10 London, where we found all the assistance We desired, aud |
 went on with the work. Our business is | particularly the raising of cattle and |
 live stock. which you knov,Iis & very | | hazardous one, especially in such wIn- ters as the present one, when cattle have | died by the thousands on the ranges, be- cause DO provision had been made for feeding them. Our plan was to irrIgste
 lands and raise large quantities Of sl-
 'slfs, SO ss to have plenty of feed when
 The ground was covered with snow, snd
 ~e have demonstrated the wisdom of
 our movement by saving all our stock
 this winter. when other cattlemen have
 lost theirs by the thousand.
 "The streams in that section of conn.,
 try gre small and provide a very limited
 supply of vster for irrgsting purposes
 turing the proper season. IL was there
 Tore necessary to store the water and we have erected dam and now husband SD
 amount of vater capable of irrisating
 from ten to fifteen thousand acres of land. We purchased from the state Roy- ernment block of about 10000 acres of land, lying below our reservoir; carried the water on, and planted alfalfa We have raised large crops and by this means are able to feed our poor COWS and young calves snd thus make s profitable business out of one that was growing more hazardous every year, h vas two or three years before we were sure inst our enterprise would be 6 suo- i oess. We had 10 encounter various ob- sfsolee, but having overcome them. ve i are now perfectly satisfied that not only ( IS ours a suooess, but that there are various other places where similar dams could be constructed and equally good ( results be obtsined.r
 THE GREAT DAM. ( dam"
 The dam that we have built lies upon C Willow creek, in Elko county, about 30 I miles from tbe rsilvsy. At .he point ] where the dam is built the buff. join c each other within 175 feet and sre 75 [ ana lUO Feet hIgb, the channel of the creek passing between. The irst thing 2 vas to secure a permanent foundation. the dam ve put in some year. hefore [ nsving been washed out by undermin- Il ing. We secured permanent founda- . ron by sinking some twenty feet below the bed of the channel and from that we commenced building up with timber and rocf The embsnkment itself is built nt , rock, about 25O feet vide st the base. 10 feet nigh so the psrspet and 25 wide on a Top. The upper or water side Is sheath ed with 3-iochplank, tightly csulked a with oskum and painted. About 1000 !. Ieet or lumber was used in that portion of the dam.
 Nov to guard against overflow, which . . IS sivsys the most disastrous thing in with dam,, we tuuneled one oi the bluffs and have 8 water passage ', through sufficiently large to carry any u reshet that will ever occur. The water 'l s conducted 100 feet away from tbe D fam, consequently there is no danger of u my undermining ever taking place. At o he head of the tunnel two large gates P Ire placed, for the purpose of lowering \ y the tune when the storage of water ~ 'ommences. These are 60 we'll srrspe- rt d that m case of cloud burst or freshets s' ne raising of the gates will lower thip VI normous volume of water in sufficient ime to prevent an overflow. ei
 lmmedistdly above the csfcn is a 1 srge valley, embracing some ten or dt- '" cen hundred acres. The present dam ot 9 only 50 feet bigh and ths water ssof- N ue se area is 5O0 acres. with sn average u 70 epth of 25 feet. This, however, is DO, to ne capacity of the reservoir. With com. srstively little expense it can be dou- led, or even tripled. We find shat ss e hll up the lsnd with water very much 'ss IS required. and ve expect to see the M me when we can IrriRste ten to fifteen ns ,oussnd acres of slfslfa lands with not sV uch more water than is beinf used ua ov" th HE IREIaABLK CAPACITY OF rHR DAM. Sr What do you consider tue irrissble do 'pscity of that water povS" fin The present capacity is considered pe, usl 70 about i've thousand acres, but he ILL ss each year passee and these dry res sins are irrigated, the valley is filled or with water, and every year less is re- oth fired For instance, at one of my oar mps l had to sink fifty feet for water. uI. d within @ week sitter irTigstIng a ren lot of land that was half or three quar- tss, ra Of a rnifa ka