Arizona republican., 1905-03-01
RECLAMATION ENGINEER
Another Experienced Han Added to
 the Local Corps.

MT. Gerard II. Matthes who has been | connected with the reclamation ser yict and U. s. c. s. under MT. Newell for the last seven years. has arrived in | Phoenix under orders to report here
 for service Just what work he will be | assigned to l.n hcs not learned but | he came he-e from Lawton, Okla, his official title there being district engin-
 ger. He is not a stranger to Arizona
 having visited the territory two or | three times before and having sur Yeyed the Riverside reservoir site as we'll as roamed over much of the ter
 ritory and taken a peep at the Grand | Canyon.
 | For the last two years he has been l engaged in an important work that many in these parts have doubtless heard very little about. When that part of Oklahoma adjacent to the present towns of Lawton, Anadarko and Hobart, was thrown open to set clement, the government laid out these | three county seats and sold the town
 lots at auction. realizing approximately three quarters of a million dollars. | This money the government placed in | a fund to be used in making public | Improvements for the. new county seats under its own direction, and MT. | Matthes was placed in charge of the construction work. Court houses were erected. and waterworks and sewer systems were provided and numerous other public utilities that were to be needed from the first in the new | towns. It is not flattering but is nevertheless true. that the first con- structions were steel cells for the To- cal jails; for with the first rush there was a large representation of the tough element.
 In I1awton a double system of sewers was constructed backed by a water works plant of the latest design and supplied with tke best water from an underground source. Some of the
 structures mentioned above are not yet completed but contracts are all let. many gre finished and others under way. Among the first improvements
 were twenty steel bridges In the three counties and before he left contracts had been let for as many more.
 Mir Matthes was also in charge of the reclamation work in Oklahoma and
 surveyed a number of projects, some of which he thinks the government is
 likely to take early action upon. The most important one is known as the Otter Creek project and is a dam and storage enterprise designed to retain ' 19O, 900 ac-cs. IL is situated in Kiowa
 county.
 Another enterprise with which MT. Matthes was very closely associated was the Sulphur Springs reservation
 in Indian rerritor-. The Sulphur
 Springs were demonstrated to have medicinal value and it was the desire
 of the government that they should be preserved for the benefit of the whole country and governed under the supr- vision of an officer of the interior de-
 partmeit as are the Hot Springs, Ark,
 mineral springs. A reserve was ac
 cordingly made and MT. Matthes was
 ordered to report upon the situation.
 He found the springs in the center of
 a natural amphitheater and around
 them a town of obout 1900 people had sprung up. Sewage all drained into
 the springs instead of away from them
 and in 2 short time would have be-
 come polluted beyond the hope of pur-
 ification. It was recommended that
 the government buy out the settlers
 and build a town site over the hill from
 the springs. The recommendation was
 followed and the government paid
 about S6O0.0 to the squatters at the
 springs in settlement of their claims.