The Arizona sentinel., 1906-01-10

SoOAJ, NO '" o0Oi "
 deemed by the golden dawn that has now risen for the whole re. zion.
 Government to the Rescue.
 For this very fight by brave individual effort has shown the futility of such individual effort. If ever the need has been proved of one big comprehensive scheme of water control, distribution, and drainage, it has been most abundantly proved in this partic' ular instance. In dealing with the Colorado riverssmall coop erative effort is clearly useless. It is the government alone that can handle such a proposition, and provide solution that will not only bring the salvation of permanent security to the indi- vidual settler, but reclaim for the benefit of the entire country the superb domain of agricultur- al territory that is destined, un- der such auspices, to pour forth an untold wealth of products to meet the requirements of the na- tion's rapidly growing popula- tion.
 And now that the Laguna dam and equalization system are fair ly under way, the whole out look has been changed at once for the rich bottom lands of Yu- ma, for the fertile mesa lands of wide extent above the river val ley, and for the city of Yuma it. self, to which all this vast acre ages are tributary. On the oc- casion of a recent visit to the re- zion I found every one high in hope, past discom6tures all for gotten, faces turned resolutely to the future now that the com ing of better days is assured. Just to show-what government intervention means for the whole region let the engineer ing works first of all be briefly described.
 The Laguna Dam.
 Twelve miles above Yuma, there are mountain walls of gran ite that come close together or the two sides of the river-the California side and the Arizona side. These afford solid abut ments for the building of the great dam, and the first thought that strikes the observer is that here indeed is the ideal spot where the mighty Colorado riv CT may be mastered, manaclec aud held in perpetual bondage The hand of Nature has beer stretched forth, and needs only the responsive handclasp of the United States government to es tablish for all time the suprema cy of engineering skill over the riot-running and havoc-working stream.
 The dam will stretch iron rock abutment to rock abutment a distance of 4800 feet. It vii be formed by three massive con crete walls, the spaces betweel which-57 1-2 feet from the cres wall to the center wall and g. 1-2 feet from the center wall t, the apron wall-will be fillet with rocks, Along the cres wall, meeting the waters iron upstream, sheet piling is bein: driven deep down below the riv CT bed to cut off the seepage each piece interlocking with it neighbors, and the whole forr ing a submerged curtain impel vious to water. Behind thi crest wall, dredging operation are digging deep, and into tn cavity thus formed huge masse of rock blasted from the mour tains are being filled. Simila
 work is being performed behin
 the middle wall of concrete, an
 then beyond the third wall wi
 be an apron of rock extendin
 forty feet down stream, upo
 which the overflowing waters g
 flood time will cascade. Tn
 whole impregnable barrer wi
 be one solid mass of rock an
 concrete, PA feet wide. and
 will have no gateway or sluic'
 way of any kind. The dam
 simply a weir. which Wlll han