The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1895-03-29
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
On Monday Next The Actual Work Will
Begin In Earnest
ENGINEER vINCENT'S PLANS
Five Large Flat Boats All In Readi-
ness-White Bear Island to Be
the Point OF the First
Operations.

GREAT FALLS, March 2S.-The STAND
ARD has already referred briefly to the
project the federal government has had
on foot for nearly a year to improve the
Missouri river from Great Falls to Cas-
cade. Preparations for the work have
been going on quietly and next Monday
the actual work will commence at White
Bear island, about four miles above this
city. During the past winter a party of
carpenters has been at work on the banks
of the river here, near the eastern APP
proach to the railroad bridge, building
flat boats. In all five large boats or
barges have been constructed which are
being loaded with supplies and tools, and
the latter part of the week will be
towed up the river to the place mentioned
by the steamboats, Minnie and j. j. Hill,
which have been chartered.
L. ID. Vincent, as assistant engineer of
the war department, who has been given
charge of the work, has been here all
winter, preparing plans and specifica-
tons. Last fall he surveyed the river,
taking soundings and otherwise familiar
izing himself with the bed of the stream
from Cascade to Broadwater bay, so he
knows exactly where the worst sand bars
are located and can tell just what style of
work 1t will be necessary to adopt in order
TO remove them.
He proposes to attack the sand bars
with the waters of fhe Missouri river by
constructing wing dams and dykes, the
current will be diverted from the channel
onto the bar and the natural result will
be that the water will cut it's way through
the sand. The wing dams and dykes are
to be made of willows and held in place
by rocks. A lot of willows are first
tied together in bundles or facines about
the size of ordinary .stove pipe. These
facines are bound together and inter-
woven into an immense mat 20x14 feet.
This is carried out to point where it is
proposed to put in the dam and by means
of rock it is sunk to the bottom of the
river. Several mats are thus piled one
upon the other until the dam is about SO
feet above low water. The upper mat is
placed about a foot further down the
stream than the end of the mat under
meath, the result being that the dam has
slope with the river SO it can better with
stand the force of the current.
1t is estimated that these dams will
stand the wear of the water better than
an ordinary pile dam. In all there are
six places between here and Cascade, a
distance of 55 miles as the river runs,
where it will be necessary to put in wing
dams or dykes, the difference between the
two being that the former runs clear
across the channel and the latter only
part way. For instance. at White Bear
island the river runs on both sides of the
island. BY putting in wing dam on the
side where the least water runs the cur
rent will be diverted the other side, making
n deep channel. Heretofore the govern
ment has tried dredging, but as there is
very little rock in the river bottom, the
water, il properly diverted, can he relied
upon to do the work of a dredger. This
will be the first work done by the govern
ment on the Missouri above the big falls
About $4,000 is available for the work
and which will furnish employment to
thirty men for about six months. Twenty
thousand dollars was appropriated for the
long pool, as the stretch of water is called,
but 81, 900 was spent in surveys and get
ting the apparatus ready to commence
work. Mr.. Vincent has all the men he
needs already engaged. The work will be
carried on as long as the appropriation
lasts. As far as the work is carried it has
been estimated that a three foot channel
will enable boats $50 feet long to ply on
the river between here and Cascade.