The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-05-30
GREATEST DAM IN AMERICA
Will Form Vast Lake Holding Four Hundred
 Billion Gallons.

store such floods. About 60 miles from Phoenix, the Salt River enters pro- found canyon, with lofty, precipitous walls and a narrow flood, in which IS located the dam site. Above the dam l the canyon opens into wide valleys. providing the most capacious reservoir | in the west.
 Tt would probably be impossible to find anywhere in the arid region. said Government Engineer Arthur F. Davis. the protector of this magnificent enter ! prise, "a storage project in which all conditions are as favorable as in. this one. The capacity of the reservoir Tn proportion to the dimensions of the dam is enormous and the lands to be watered are of remarkable fertility, with
 a climate which may be classed as al- most semi-tropic."
 | Mir. Davis also made the important | discovery that material for making good Portland cement and bricks lies | immediately by the dam site. He states | that the masonry dam now under con- l struction will be absolutely permanent -"safe. solid and secure for all ages | to come, a part of the everlasting hills | of which 1t will become an integral l part"
 Finding that the prices bid by the cement manufacturers would add an in- crease burden of half a millionFor more I dollars to the payments of the irriga- | tors, the government constructed an | immense cement mill and will itself manufacture the 100000 or more bar rels of cement needed for the dam. | A splendid roadway. rivaling the noun | tain roads of the Incas, has been built | from Phoenix to the dam, at cost of over a hundred thousand dollars. The cost of the entire construction, threo | million and a half dollars. will be ap- | portioned among the lands receiving 1 the water, to be paid back to the gov | ernment in ten annual installments.
 and no water user can hold more than | 160 acres.@
 The River to Build Its Own Dam. 1 An interesting feature of the con- | struction work Is the power canal
 which has already been built. The regular flow of the river has been di- | verted above the dam site, and at that
 point is tumbled over the rocks, gen. erating some 10000 electrical horse l power to be utilized in building the dam. It will be required day and night for drilling, moving great rocks, pump ing grinding rock and clinkers, mixing and handling cement and handling ma | chinery. The river Is thus being forced to erect It's own dam. After the construction, this power, added tC large additional power to be extracted
 from the heavy fall of the river below | LH6 udfu bitSS WtAl Dc SASSSiA
 mitted to lands not covered by the
 gravity canal for pumping purposes ant by this means fully 60,000 acres addi'
 tional will be watered from the un'
 derground supply found throughout thu
 Salt River Valley.
 An ample spillway will provide ar
 escape for excessive flood waters, anC
 a tunnel driven through solid rock will
 enter the reservoir directly on its bot
 tom to supplement the spillway and al
 so to allow for the discharge of sedi
 ment from the reservoir.
 The valley is already well provided with transportation by the Santa F.
 and the Southern Pacific railroads an'
 the exceptional climatic conditions in
 sure an early market and high price l; | for the various products of agrtcultur and horticulture.
 The drainage area of the Salt am , it's tributaries aggregate some 12.00 square miles and some of the mountail peaks near the source pierce the sky a
 an altitude of 10000 feet. - Guy Elliott Mitchell.