Arizona republican., 1906-05-13
CONDITIONS AT
 EXTENSION HEAD
Construction Work Satisfactory, and
 Plans Working Out We'll.

Messrs. B. A. Fowler. Dan McDer- mott, k. H. Burmister and Superin- tendent Ensign of the Phoenix Light and Power company yesterday visited the Arizona head. in MT. Ensign's au- tomobile, making a careful inspection Of conditions to date. The road is very dusty and the travelling was bad, par ticularly from the power house up, but otherwise the trip was a very pleasant one.
 MT. Fowler said last night that while there is not yet quite as much water running as it was expected would be in the canal last night, there is a con- Stantly increasing flow aud the con- struction work at the head of the ex- tension is going forward in a most sat isfactory manner. The quarries from which the rock for the dam is taken are on this side of the river and not far from the camp. Twenty men are at work in the quarries and the rock is being taken out very fast. The rail- road, sO-called, runs down and crosses the extension on a temporary bridge and proceeding goes clear across the river channel to the opposite bank. On this railroad there is now operated one car six feet wide and ten feet long and another is about ready to be put into NOillIIilSSiOn. I ne EdueQ cars are drawn to the end of the dam by teams and then pushed out the trestle work by hand and unloaded. Ten men are engaged in this work and in handling the teams, making a complete force of thirty men and six teams. The rock dam has a base twenty feet wide and when completed will at the apex be seven feet high. This means a very heavy deposit of rock and one it is not believed any ordinary flood will move. Rock is now being thrown on the lower side and in the middle and it is pro posed to finish off by placing a finish ing coat of the largest rock that can be handled conveniently on both the upper and lower sides to weight down the lighter material in the center. It is believed the dam will be substantially finished in a week and that it will take few days after that to remove the track and trestle and finish up the job complete, so that by the first of June or before everything will probably be done that can be done under present plans.
 As those who have been interested enough to follow the project are aware, several hundred feet of the extension at its upper end run across the river bed diagonally to the south side chan mel, where the water now is. A part of the present plan being worked out by R. H. Collins, who has charge of the construction. is to build a heavy lum- Der bulkhead from the end of the rock dam down the lower bank of the ex- tension for some distance and several feet above the level of the extension bank. The purpose of this bulkhead is to stop the water from any ordinary rise or rather divert it down the eX- tension, or if in too great quantity for the extension to carry, force it to overflow the upper rather than the lower bank of the extension. there be- ing ample room on that side of the ditch for a large current of water. The effect of this must necessarily be first to divert all small flood waters into the ditch and if a large flood comes change the channel of the river to this side Of the bed. In the latter event probably a couple of thousand feet of the upper end of the extension will be washed out, which Is the very thing desired, for 1t will bring the main river channel that much nearer to the rock cut which is the real substantial and indesructible head of the extension. It will mean that in the succeeding months there will be that much less canal to care for and undoubtedly a great deal of the present water supply in the extension finds it's way back into the river before it really leaves the bed, for the ditch runs mainly through a sand and gravel bar. For the fur ther protection Of the. canal against any large flood huge gates have been placed in it below this 1000 feet re- ferred to and near the head of the big rock cut. so when there is too much water it can be shut out, thus prevent ing a flood in the canal that will de- stroy the banks below, that were weakened by the tremendous floods Of this spring.
 Concerning the volume of water in the canal it was hoped there would be