Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1891-05-23


fifty miles. With the construction 0
be extended so as to irrigate 100, 900 acrel
more Of equally productive land, reaching
down to Seven Rivers in Eddy county.
The great dam constructed across the
Pecos river, six miles above Eddy, il
built for the purpose OF raising the water
and turning it into the canals, and o.
forming storage reservoir for all the
southern system of bitches of the Pecos
Irrigation & Improvement company. The
dam is built of limestone. 1t is 1876 feet
wide at the base (Which rests on the
solid bedrock OF the country, rises to q
height of forty feet above bedrock, with
a slope of two to one on the lower side
and of one-half to one on the side bear.
ing the pressure of the reservoir, and is
|, l40 feet, or nearly quarter of mile,
in length. The dam simply fills gap or
notch worn down through solid lime
stone ridge by the flow Of the river since
Terrace times, and hence the abutme ents
are solid rock IN place.
The outlet to the canal is cut thirty
feet wide, twenty-five feet deep and
500 feet in length through the solid rock
of this ridge on the easterly side of the
river, with gates about midway of this
cut to regulate the flow of water into the
canal. On the west side OF the river
and reservoir this limestone ridge curves
around to the north and toward the river
above and some 400 yards from the CEN
ter of the dam broad cut has been made
across it, five feet below the level of the
crest OF the dam, for the escape of sur
plus water, in case of a sudden rise,
which water will flow down ravine back
of the solid rock ridge and re-enter the
river half mile below, so that no injury
can possibly be done to the dam by the
escaping waste water.
On the east side the ridge broadens out
northward, and has been cut into by the
river until vertical cliff of considerable
height has been formed. Against this
cliff the force of the flow for two miles
above comes squarely, and being broken
by the solid hill, turns gently toward the
dam few hundred feet below. This
conformation gives additional security to
the dam, as no rush of water, however
sudden or great, can reach it with per-
ceptble force.
The lake or reservoir formed by the
dam is seven miles long, one mile and
three-quarters wide and holds about l.
900 ,O00,0 900 cubic feet of water, enough to
supply the ditch with full head for
nearly one month. When filled it gives
head of water twenty feet above the
bottom of the cut through which the main
canal is fed, and thirteen feet above the
feed-gates when open.
The main canal, leading from the rock
cut outlet heretofore described as near the
east end of the dam, is forty feet wide at
the bottom, seventy feet at the top, has
slope OF one and half to one, and will
carry, through this great excavation, a
volume of water seven feet in depth.
Where gentle slopes or extensive flats OF
rocky, barren and worthless ground occur
on the inland, or upper side of the canal,
the enbankment il thrown up wholly on
the lower side, 80 as to utilize these flats
for the storage of immense quantities of
water. The main canal, of the dimen-
sions stated, continues four miles down
the river, when it is divided into two
smaller canals, one branch going down
ON the east and the other on the west side
of the river. Now let us follow the west
ern branch of this superb artificial
waterway, as that is the most import
ant
Owing to the considerable but uniform
descent of the river, the bottom of the
great flume across it is forty feet above
the river bed at the point of crossing,
thus placing it far above the reach of any
possible flood. The fume is reached by
a "terre-plein" or raised earthwork, 1900
feet long across the river bottom, 100 feet
wide at the base and sixty feet on top,
through which runs the canal, thirty-fve
feet wide at the bottom, with banks
sloping two to one and of sufficient height
to carry with safety seven feet of water.
The tlume itself is twenty feet wide in
the clear, eight feet deep, 475 feet long
and rests on substantial trestlework with
spans sixteen feet in length. Another
"terre-plein," 300 feet long, but otherwise
of the same dimensions as the one de-
scribed, conducts the water from the
fume to the high land on the west side
of the river, from whence it flows, seven
feet in depth, through ditch twenty-five
feet wide at the bottom and with high
banks sloping one and one half to one.
This ditch passes about mile and a half
west of Eddy, meanders along the higher
portion Of the valley from eight to ten
miles back from the river, and is COM
pleted for distance of about thirty miles
to the Black river, from which point it
will be extended, on line ten or twelve
miles back from the Pecos, and will
reach the southern boundary line OF
New Mexico on the Delaware river-giv-
ing the canal total length of tifty-tive
miles, uniform fall of eighteen inches
to the mile, and bringing under and sub
ject to irrigation by its waters at least
$50 900 acres of rich, alluvial, and mex
haustible soil, at all points along the line
gently sloping from the canal to the Pc
cos river.
AS the fall of the Pecos from the fume
above Eddy to the confluence of the Della
ware is 260 feet, while that of the canal is
but eighty-two and half feet, the water
of the latter, on reaching the Texas line,
will be 1T and half feet above the level
of the Pecos river bed. Another canal,
branching from the main canal at the
east end of the first "terre-plein," runs
downs on the east side of the Pecos river,
nearly parallel to the general course of
that stream and about six miles back
from it. This ditch is about twenty five
feet wide at the bottom, and carries seven
feet of water. Its length is twenty miles,
and it will bring under irrigation more
than $4,000 acres of rich sandy loan.
The valley Cd the east side also slopes
gently from the line of the ditch to the
river. The difference between the east
and west side canals will be generally