Arizona republican., 1904-07-10
ENGINEER HILL HERE
Latest Report of Conditions at the
 Storage Basin.

Engineer L. c. Hill arrived here late Friday evening from Roosevelt, having left that camp on Tuesday. He says he hasn't been lost for a minute since he left and worked his way down to Phoenix slowly scattering time checks along the way to the great saisfac- ton of the army of men working on the Tonto road, for it was the monthly pay day for the road camps, The telc. gram which was construed to mean that Mir. Hill would be here nearly week ago had reference entirely to an- other man, hence the supposed delays.
 When asked for 2 report of condi- tions at the storage basin MT. Hill said he would speak of things as they were on July 1st. Everything has been running smoothly. sine thea but that is a good date 10 work from and since then he has been on the road most of the time. On that date 4,O00 feet of tunnel work on the power ca nal had been completed ready for the | concrete lining. The total amount of tunnel work is s,7GO feet so it is near ly half finished and work is in pro- gress in all the tunnels. The excava- tion work on the power canal is nov :ng slower than it ought to owing to a shortage of men. A number of teams have been idle for the reason that there were no men to handle them.
 The sluicing tunnel is about half fin ! ished. 290 feet of it having been com pleted on July l. Work is now being prosecuted from both ends.
 The contractOr for the cement mill is now putting up the steel construction. | the material for which is all on the ground. A large amount of the cemen; machinery is now in Globe or on the ground ready for riacing.
 The temporary rower house is prac- | tically completed. the engines and boll- CTS are set. the line shafts for the u.a- ! chine shops are up and the machinery is ready 10 place.
 They have already manufactured some red brick and are now grinding material for the fire brick.
 In the Toad work there are now, five ! big hustling camps at wo:k. one at Fish Creek hill and two on each side of there. The road camp nearest to the dam is engaged ih building a new piece of road designed to eliminate two crossings of the river and when his is done the road will be entirely on the south side never crossing the river at | all. ] ne OAlCl tdliIB Dtl Oliu IT iSii creek is engaged in bettering a LOCO foot stretch of road that is now pass able with fair load but is sandy and needs improving for heavy hauling.
 There is one road camp between the central camp and Mormon Flat. smoothing down the high trail on the ! Fish creek plateau and the other is | MT. Uttlngs camp t this end. He has about fifty men employed and on i Thursday moved camp to Mormon
 Flat, though the road has not quite | reached that point IL may be driven
 over now though with a light rig for MT. Utting took in a wagon with a half
 ton load. He expects to work his men both ways from Mormon Flat and in | crease his force as fast as possible. A stage line runs from Mesa Mondays. ! Wednesdays and Fridays to the end of
 the road where it connects with pack train.
 Directly and indirectly. including freighters, etc. there are now between i l ,OO0 and 1,2OO men at work on the en- | tire enterprise. Between 325 and $50 | of them are being directly supplied
 with provisions and other equipment
 from this valley, aggregating about | ton and a half of merchandise daily. MT. Hills special business here this | trip is to see about the completion of | the telephone line from the Arizona ! dam to Phoenix. He expects to leave
 tonight for Globe going by rail via 1 Bowie
 He was asked about the case filed in
 court here to oust Williams, the saloon keeper on the government ground. He said that MT Williams sluatted before l |, | he could be ejected only by legal pro-
 cess. He has had no trouble with any
 other whiskey seller for when they ask
 permission to open a saloon all he has
 to do is to refuse them and show them
 the law It is not within his province
 to do anything else. Personally he has
 had no trouble with MT. Williams
 either but signed the complaint for
 mally at the request of the United States attorney. The. selling of liquor 1 on the government land is against the | law and beside is not dssirable for quite a number of the laborers will buy it if they have the opportunity. Stili this saloon has interfered but lit
 tie as it is twelve miles from the dam site and three or four miles from the
 construction camps along the canal. 1 Asked about the reported finding or
 oil in the sluicing tunnel and elsewhere
 in the storage basin, MT. Hill said that
 the smell of oil could be detected in tile sluicing tunnel but not as pronounced
 as some have reported. The conditions. | however are such that he does not
 think the indications warrant the be-
 lief that there is enough oil in that
 section to be of practical value hence
 no search for it has been made by the
 officials. It would require q heavy
 drilling rig to explore the ground sci
 entifically and certainly and he does
 not believe the indications warrant
 such an outlay.