Omaha daily bee., 1906-05-13
DARING WORK OF SURVEYORS
Dangers Faced and Overcome BY P j
finders in Mountain Gorges
EXPERIENCES IN THE eUNNIsON TUNNEL
Exploration Of > Canyon 5000 Feet
deep from which No One Before
had Returned AIive-HuEe
Irrigation Project.


spurred by martial music or the pomp
and panoply Of war. carry their messages
10 Garcia as surely and uncomplainingly,
and in the line OF duty as serenely meet
death as any wearer Of shoulder straps OF
epaulets
The reclamation service, that branch OF
government activity engaged in redeeming
arid wastes Of western lands would not
seem to offer fertile field for deeds of
daring and heroic sacrifice. Yet its records
are replete with the blood-stirring deeds
Of men whose names the public never
hears The story OF the survey for the
Gunnison tunnel and the achievements OF
A. L. Fellows and j. w. Mcconnell, how
ever, IL too good a one TO be lost in musty
government archives.
Down in southwestern Colorado lies the
Uncompahgre desert, a hundred thousand
acres Of desolation. A small part Of it
under irrigation has proved fertile beyond
all expectations, but in the proving the
full capacity Of Uncompahgre river had
been reached. No more water was avail
able, but there lay beyond tho irrigated
lands a principality of enormous potential
wealth which. It appeared must forever
remain an unproductive desert II no addi-
tional supply could be brought into the
valley.
Tapping the GuDnIson.
Thirty miles eastward from the UnCom-
pahgre flows the Gunnison river, power
full stream, just the kind needed in the
valley. why not divert it and use the
water for this purpose? A visionary
scheme would be the off-hsnd verdict. The
Gunnison along its stretch traverses box
canon 1000 feet deep. Surely no one could
divert water under such circumstances
One day there came to the resident en-
gineer Of the reclamation service at Dem
yer an order from Washington that read
som ewhat like this: Advise me II it is
feasible 70 divert Gunnison to Uncompahgre
valley by tunnel under Vernal Mesa"
Signed Chief Engineer"
Let us dtverge briefly to analyze this or
der. A tunnel under the Vcrna Mesa, which
is the name OF the mountain through which
Gunnison river has cut a narrow cash.
would be at least five miles long from the
canon to the nearest opening IN Uncom-
pshgre valley. This meant the longest tun-
mel In the United States; not so amazing to
the Denver office. II the location OF both
ends Of the proposed tunnel were in known
country. But in this case the canyon where
II must begin was unknown. No one had
ever passed through 1t alive. and those
VINO nad attempted IL ana returned were
ready to demonstrate beyond all possible
doubt that It was an impossibiity.
Measurements on the spot.
Now, It is automatic I'm engineering work
that II You are going to report upon the
feasibility OF tunnel you must determine
the location Of both ends by careful meas
urement on the spot. Well, orders from
Washington directed report on feasibility.
W ~, ba 70 =
anything unusual when Fellows of the
Denver ONCE" set his square jaw, quietly
made his preparation took along one as
sistant and went surveying down Gunnison
canon. 1t will he well to remember that
in all those days of swimming climbing,
freezing. thawing and hunger he was not
sliding through by the easiest path and
taking the death-threatening places at a
bound but he was proceeding deliberately
and surveying every foot The next time you
20 down the street and see a well dressed
fellow running a level or a transit along
the curb. or stalking of the boundaries Of
house lot just notice his polished shoes,
his neat notebook, his comfortable easy at
titude, and his graceful signals to the rod
man. and then think of Fellows Of the
Denver Office" down in that roaring cav
ern, drenched to the skin, hanging on by
ropes and squirting through a transit. be-
cause Washington wanted to know il the
tunnel feasible.
No man, so far as known, had ever gone
through the canyon alive. Stoutly built
RATS OF logs launched at the head of the
canon had emerged at it's mouth smashed
Into kndling wood. It was popular belief
that no man could go down the canon and
live to tell Of his experiences.
Lives In Constant Peril
With their instruments and provisions on
an Inflated rubber mattress, Fellows and
his companions set forth on their expe-
dition There was hardly an hour OF the
time they were in the canon that their lives
were not in deadly peril; there was not a
minute that was not filled with heart
breaking hardships. It all ended by Eel
lows and his companion saving two things
their lives and their note books. Every
thing else went down with the flood When
the men emerged at the DEVILS Slide
weary, bruised and bleeding. friends who
had been waiting to pick up their mangled
bodies hailed them as IL they had returned
from the dead
When Fellows sent his report to Washing
ton there was in II no word of the perils
and hardships Of survey work in a roaring
canon. II was brief and to the point:
"Gunnison tunnel project is feasible"
Soon the order came from Washington:
Complete surveys for construction"
The next man on the scene was j. w. Me-
Connell, and better known in the service
as "Gunnison" Mcconnell. Folks out there
sized him up a a shy sophomore: now they
take on their hats to him. They find
fault with him for one thing. however,
which is that he is not given to talk
A Heart-BreakinE sob.
McConnells orders could not be car
ried out by surveying through the canon;
they had to lower him down in there with
ropes so that he might make a map of it
a real topographic map. with contour lines.
levels and bench marks as clear and easy
to trace as the map of any section or ward
OF your own town Then he established
precise levels A. both ends OF the proposed
tunnel, This was a heart-breaking job. OF
course the tunnel could not be built level.
because II must carry water and more
over It must carry just the amount of
water needed over in the Uncompahgre
valley. II Il were built without suficient
slope from river TO valley IL would not
carry enough water while n il had too
much slope it would carry too much water