Lyon County times. [volume] (Silver City, Nev.) 1874-1907, 1890-10-11
COUNTY ROADS AND BRIDGES.
DAMAGE Done to Them by the High
Waters Last summer.

The water in the rivers that trav-
erse Lyon county having receeded
a resume of the damage done to
roads and bridges shows that the
county will be put to considerable
expense in making repairs to the
public highways. At the bridge
over the East Walker, some eight
miles from Greenfield, is the first
place that damage was done on that
river. The bridge and its approach
es served as divide, and sent the
water on both sides of it to the width
of some four to five hundred feet.
On the North side the road is cut
through little forest of willows,
that stretch along the banks of the
river, and this cut of course served
as convenient outlet for the water
that overfowed on this side. This
continual flow of water cut the road
way to a depth of two and B half to
three feet and from the bridge to the
Fox Ditch bridge, some three hum
bred feet, Critics say the road lev
ell should be raised from two and a
half to-five feet, which will raise it
to a level of the Mickey, Ditch bridge,
and if culverts were interspersed at
intervals it would preclude the re-
currence of scenes Of last Spring.
This hardly seems probable though
for when the river was at its highest
the body Of water that swept through
here was sufficient to carry away the
new bridge of the Fox Ditch Co.,
and was at one time more than was
running in the river. On the south
side, to some extent, a similar con-
dition of things was found, though
the damage to the road is not near
as great, as the water here ran
straight across it. At one point
where the road travels across a
slough it is badly quilted for some
fifteen feet. 1t is on this side that
Steve Hilburn's ranch is located, to
which considerable damage was
done, as the water swept in broad
sheet through it. One section of the
barbed wire fence for a quarter of a
mile is buried out of sight, posts
and all, in the sand deposited by the
waters. Many ranchers believe that
damage on this side was unnecessa-
ry, for had the Fox Ditch Co., cut
their dam and allowed the sand to
flow through, the bed of the river
would never have raised sufficiently
for any great overflow. They also
believe the other side would have
been greatly benefited too. Below
Greenfield on the road to Wabuska
the most damage was done. At the
corner of Leavitt's fence is large
hole quilted out some two hundred
and fifty feet long, eight to twenty
feet wide and from two to seven feet
deep. There is room at the narrow
est point for a team to pass and
about four feet to spare. 1t was
here that one of the Valley ranch
ers having passed the night before,
came along on horseback the next
morning unsuspectinging, when 10!
man and horse disappeared from
sight. No damage done except a
thorough wetting. On the fat be-
tween here and Nichols ditch their
was no damage, though it was COW
cred by water, except the carrying
away of Nichols ditch bridge. The
road from this ditch to the Merritt
ditch was even little lower than
the surrounding land, and when
the water commenced to overflow
from Nichols ditch it served as a
sluiceway and carried all the water
in the first stage of the overflow,
and as the water raised it wore a
place for itself some eight to fifteen
feet wide, two to ten feet deep and
about five hundred feet long. A
piece of ground about four hundred
feet long, to which little damage
was done, intervenes. Then COM
mences another gully about four
hundred feet long, and about the
same depth and width as the other.
This brings us to the Merritt ditch
and here is another bridge washed
away. Fording this ditch you come
to fiat which at the time of the
highest water was covered swim
ming deep, but for all that is not
damaged to any extent, and road
is even now in the process of being
worn across it by ranchers on the
other side of the river. Crossing
the river bridge the approach lead
ing to the apron is one-third washed
away. From here, north some sew
en- hundred feet to the Mason ditch,
the road is badly quilted and