The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-12-16
A GREAT RESERVOIR.
A Million Acres May Be Irrigated
 From an Arizona Plant

A hillioH Acres May be irrigated
 From an Arizona Plant
 The greatest storage reservoir in the world is to be constructed in Arizona. Full information about this great work is contained in a report made by l.. V. Navarro, consul of the Mexican gov ernment at Phoenix, in which he said:
 Tt Is estimated that enough water is wasted from Salt river each winter to amply irrigate 1,000,000 acres in the Salt river valley throughout the year were the water properly distributed. It is purposed to store these winter floods, to be drawn from as needed during the summer months, by constructing grand reservoir in the mountains some sixty miles to the northeast of Phoenix. The project is very feasible from an engineering standpoint As it traverses the mountains on it's way to the valley the Salt river passes through a great basin in the mountains, which has but one outlet-the canyon of the Salt river.
 "The United States government has granted to the Hudson Reservoir and Canal Company this basin, known as the Tonto basin, to be used as a stor- age reservoir. The company has com pleted all it's engineering work, and plans and specifications for the dam have just been completed. It pro- poses to build dam at the head of the canyon, where the river emerges from the basin, thus creating lake which will cover eighteen square miles to a depth of 100 to 200 feet. It will be necessary to build a dam 200 feet high and some 600 feet in length at the top, although the canyon Is only 200 feet wide for the first 100 feet from the bottom. The Territory of Arizo- na has granted the company the use of the channel of the Salt river in which to convey the water thus stored to the valley below, and the stored wa ter will therefore be turned back into the channel as needed and conveyed through the canyon for a distance of thirty miles to the head of the valley, where the first diverting dam is found.
 ITO construct this great storage res ervoir, which will be the largest in the world, will cost, it Is estimated, about $2,500000, and the company is now act ively at work obtaining the necessary funds It proposes to sell stored wa ter to the irrigating canal companies now doing business in the valley, and it is said that these companies will be very willing thus to augment the lim- ited supply which they now have ready for sale to the farmers.
 Some of the canal companies have already entered into such contracts with the reservoir company Farmers now pay for water at the rate of SIPS to $2.25 an acre per annum, and the canal companies, when they begin to furnish water from the reservoir, will charge the farmers an additional $1.00 per acre in order to reimburse them selves for their outlay to the reservoir company It is said. however, that the farmers will be willing to pay this i additional price, as the increased water supply will enable them to harvest double the amount of their present crops. 1t can be seen, therefore, that when this immense undertaking has been accomplished Arizona will have the greatest irrigation system in the world, and the harvest of farm prod ucts and fruits, already abundant in the valley, will go toward making this one of the most prosperous regions on l the globe" = Tacoma Washington Ledger.