The herald., 1896-01-19
WATER SUPPLY INCREASED
The South Antelope Valley Country to
Receive the Benefit
A Company of Eastern Capitalists Who Have
Undertaken a Great and Important
Work of Development

Among the noted eastern people who ar
rived in Los Angeles via the Santa Fe last
evening were c. B. Cole, vice president and
general manager of the Wabash, Chester
and Western railroad, and Mrs. c. B. Cole
of Chester, Ill. Mr.. Cole is also president
of the Millers' National association. Ac-
companying them are VIM. Eliot Smith
and wife of Alton, Ill. Mr.. Smith is the
president of the Illinois Glass company.
They are all largely interested in South
ern California, and are stockholders in the
South Antelope Valley Irrigation company,
corporation backed by Los Angeles and
eastern capital and under the mana cement
of Nathan Cole, Jr., of this city. This COM
pany owns a large body of land in the vi
cinity of Palmdale, as we'll as the irriga-
ton system that has furnished the south
Antelope country with water during the
past ten years. In order to increase the
present supply and provide for future re-
quirements, the company is building a
large ditch from their head works on Little
Rock creek to the dry lake west of Harold
station on the Southern Pacific railroad.
This lake covers an area five miles in
circumference, and can be flooded to a
depth of fifty feet. Occupying an elevated
position overlooking the Antelope valley,
it forms perfect storage reservoir, and
when utilized will be the means of reclaim
ing 10000 acres of Los Angeles county
lands now practically valueless. When it
is remembered that prunes from irrigated
lands in this same section took the first
premi I'm at Chicago, and almonds the first
prize at Atlanta, the value of this develop
ment can be better appreciated.
The ditch from Little Rock creek to the
| wide on the top, ten feet wide on the bot
tom and six feet deep. 1t taps the stream
at point where there is perpetual water,
and is designed to carry a maximum
amount of 10000 miners inches. Four
| miles of the ditch are now nearing COM
pletion, and the expectation is that the
| reservoir will be filled with water this
spring.
Two hundred men and one hundred
| teams are employed on the work, and it is
being pushed with all possible expedition.
Along the line of the ditch are numerous
tunnels and fumes-the tunnels being built
| through solid granite mountains, two of
them being over 500 feet in length and
seven feet in diameter. In the first section
| of the ditch are 1000 feet of flume, mostly
| SKI feet in size, and built of 1-inch red
| wood boards doubled.
An engineering feature of the work is a
submerged fiume, SKIS feet in size. buried
in the channel of the stream. Another
feature is a bench flume, 1000 feet in
| length, notched into the solid rock wall of
| the canyon. At favorable point this
| fiume crosses the creek on trestle bridge
21O feet long and % feet high, ending in a
| combination Howe truss bridge, which was
| swung yesterday.
The diverting works are through solid
rock taking the water from tie bed of the
stream at point where it is less than fifty
feet from the wall of the canyon. The ele-
walton here is over 1000 feet above the sea
level. A tunnel of 1000 feet delivers the
water from the reservoir 10 the valley be-
! low, and an elaborate ditch and pipe sys-
tenn is designed to distribute the iife-giving
! fluid over the country. A million feet of
lumber will be required in this work, be-
side vast quantities of other material, and
| when fully completed not less than
| 100000 will be invested. The benefit
| to this city and especially to the arid lands
| in the northern part of the county, upon
| the successful completion of these works,
| can hardly be calculated, and the men who
| have the nerve to push through such an
| undertaking in these times of financial de-
| preston deserve the plaudits of all good
| citizens.
| The first section of the work is now re-
| ceiving the finishing touches and the sur
| vey of tine second section is being pushed
| by large corps of engineers.
| The following party of eastern people
! arrived last night by tho Santa Fe and they
| are quartered at the Westminster. They
| are large stockholders in the new water
| storage enterprise at Palmdale, ana have
| come out to inspect the works and view the
country: c. b. Cole, vice-president and
general manager of the Wabash, Chester
and Western railway, and his wife, of
dent of the Illinois glass works, and his
mother, of Alton, ILL.,; A. d. Watson, wife
and daughter. of Mt. Vernon, III. and Mrs.
and Miss Kellenbergen, of Alton, Ill.