Durango semi-weekly herald., 1905-08-28

time ana cdlcuidtc It's NplHhit us hhN 4
movements Of meter at his side. |
The reservoir will approximately COW
er an area oil 3S square miles and sub |
merge between IA 900 and 5000 acres,
some OF which is now occupied by
farmers, but will be purchased by the
government.
The dam is being built by John A.
Rourke a. Co. of Galveston. who re-
Gently built the big sea wall that is
to protect that city from future floods.
His contract calls for 81 .467 500 worth
of masonry. the grading is being done
by Sherer & Co. of Los Angeles and
the tunnel is being bored by John Tut
tie of San Francisco-all under con
tracts. The canal. which is to carry
the water to the main irrigation ditch
es. requires the excavation of 6,OOOOOO
cubic feet of earth. and the several
tunnels will require 5000 feet OF bor-
ing through solid rock. The machtn
cry was all built in Chicago, muo n
of 1t being designed for this especia!
purpose.
About 100000 barrels of cement will
be required which would cost In the
market, with transportation added, not
less than 81 a barrel. Fortunately,
however. all of the materials neces-
sary are found on the ground. The
limestone deposits are Immediately
beside the cement mill; the clay must
be carried only about a mile. -Four
nunderd tons of machinery and sixty
tons of structural iron were brought
from Chicago for the mill. The raw
materials are ground and mixed auto
matically and are dumped into the
kiln by an ingenious contrivance, so
that the heat increases as the mixture
travels down the line. At the upper
end the temperature is l,2OO degrees
Fahrenheit: at the lower end 1t is
2, 800 degrees. After the materials
have thoroughly fused and become
cement they pass automatimally into
cooler and are finally dumped into
storage bins through chute. This is
claimed to be the most perfect cement
factory ever constructed. but OF course
il is only temporary Everything is
done by electricity. The fuel is Grade
petroleum delivered from California.
| which costs 50 AS per barrel delivered
| in tanks on the ground. The con
tractor nauls it from the railroad by
| means of traction engine.
The government has its own saw
| mill which was bought in Michigan
| and located in the timber about TWEEN
| ~ miles from the dam. There is plen
| ty of good pine. some of the trees
five feet in diameter.
| The town in which the workmen
live is called Roosevelt and stands
above the CANYON on what will be the
bottom OF a lake when the water Is
| turned in The houses. all built with
! in the past eighteen months. are like
the barracks of military post, being
made comfortable and attractive will
wide verandas, window screens. bath
rooms, electric lights and ice plant
filters. oil ranges and all the improve
ments of a modern apartment house
Each contractor boards his own men
or furnishes them quarters If they pre-
fer to bring their families. The gov
ernment permits a certain number OF
storekeepers to sell supplies, but nc
liquor can be sold nearer than sb
miles of the boundary of the reserva
ton man has to travel about elev
en- miles to get drink of intoxicants
There is good deal of social life al
Roosevelt. There is ball in the din
ign room of one of the barracks every
Saturday night. an orchestra and
brass band furnish plenty of music
there is a reading club and literary
society; a baseball club which has
never been beaten, and other organic
ations furnish diversion. Amateur
dramatic performances are proposed
for the future.
| Roosevelt is a temporary town, oi
course. AS soon as the work is com
pleted, every building will be removed
before the water is turned in, but II
will increase in population unit
thai time. The place is reached by q
newly constructed road, 65 miles long
from the railroad. 1t cost about 5000,
OO0-half of that sum being contrib
uted by the neighboring cities. III
places the construction work was very
expensive and cost as much as $4,000
a mile. The road is permanent
thing and will always be needed
About 100000 pounds Of freight pass
over 1t every month now.
| There has been great difficulty in
securing labor for construction. Work
men are scare all through this coun.
try, although wages are very high.
| The road was built largely by Indian
| labor-Apaches-who are industrious.
intelligent and orderly. Nearly all
of the employees at the saw mill are
Apaches also. and the bosses say that
| for ordinary labor they are as good
as anybody: but they know nothing
of mechanics.
Mr.. Hill expects to complete the
dam so as to turn on the water in
about three years. Almost all OF the
land to be irrigated has already been
taken up and improvements are being
made in some places. But it will be
four or five years before the water
will he available for irrigation.
The dam will be a solid mass of
rock and Portland cement. The ma