Bisbee daily review., 1906-07-17
Preliminary Work at Tonto Basin Is Nearing Completion by the Government Engin- eers Working There.
Lake Twenty Miles Long Will Be Made by Subserying the Flood Waters of Arizona'S Big Watershed,

LOS ANGELES. July 16.-Roose- welt dam. at the mouth of the Tonto basin in Arizona. will hold back l.5Oo, COG acres of ground with water twelve inches 6esp. These are the astounding figures recently arrived al by the gov erLment engineers in charge or the work on Tonto basin. acccordig 10 Kerneth Shibley, a young Los Angeles ergieer, who is here on furiougn from the basin. Shibley, a graduate of the University of Southern Cali fornia and Berkley. is engaged ii the drauehting office and in a position co known of every step of progress maue on this, the greatest engineering Ieae the reclamation service of the govern ment ever attempted.
 Arizona is one of the greatest pros pectiye agricultural districts ln th country" said MT. Shibley this morn ing. ~There are thousands or acres of irrigable land in the territory and the solution of the water problem Will bring Arizona to the fore with a bound no one can now appreciate. It is the intention of the government to solve this problem and the Roosevelt dam at Tonto basin is the first of the great enterprises projected to that end.
 @'The Tonto basin and the Salt river come together in a gap eighty miles northeast of Phoenix. It is here that the government plans to build the Roosevelt dam, one of the greatest in the world, 276 feet high in the center 500 feet long and 150 feet through at the widest point. The dam will hold back the winter rains of November. December and January and form lake twenty miles long and an average three miles wide, or fifty-eisht square miles in area. This water will be carried out through conduits cut through the solid rock of the noun tains on either side of the dam itself. The gates at the entrances to these conduits will be the largest and heav- fest in the world and operated by hy- draulic power. When these are in stalled the engineers at the dam will be able to release an amount of water so exact that it will not vary dozen miners inches from the quantity de- sired at any time.
 Between Roosevelt dam and Phoe- nix the water will flow in open cement conduits, down a series of canyons to a diversion dam that will sent it into the smaller canals that spread out, fan like, over the 250,0o0 acres of land it is planned to irrigate. This area is below Phoenix. The canals here have been in use for years but almost every winter they have been washed away by heavy floods from the Tonto basin that have never been held in check. A roaring torrent thirty feet deep pcurs through the gap in winter time, sweeping away everything in it's path and costing the landowners thousands of dollars annually.
 There was an immense amount of preliminary work at the basin before work on the dam could be begun. This ROW has been finished. There is a power canal 5000 feet long that fur. nishes electrical power for the use of the contractors and the government. but that will eventually be sold to ranchers in the valley below at cost, one-half cent a horsepower an hour Private corporations, as in this city. for instance, charge from five to ten cents for the same amount Of power. 1h hS PAoHI VIII nave ChpdClly Ol loo,- Oo0 horsepower. In addition to this. there is a cement plant for the manu- facture of cement on the ground. There are unlimited supplies of rock and lime at Tonto and this plant will turn cut 12,G00 barrels a month at g barrel, almost half what the govern ment would pay contractors for the same uality
 An fmense camp is necesitated for the construction work and permanent houses have been built These make a good sized city in themselves. and there are many men not actively en- gagged in the project who are in busi- ness at Roosevelt and doing well. The government supplies lodging and board for all it's employees and pays good salaries. The result is the highest cltss of work, both engineering and construction. The camp is governed and laid out on lines almost military. There is no confusion. no waste, no energy misapplied. It is revelation to work under those big engineers in a project so vast Two million already have ben spent and the dam itself has not been touched.