CanÌƒon City record. [volume] (CanÌƒon City, Colo.) 1883-192?, 1907-04-25

had simply oPsned*az hole IN ;&sluvia2
soil forming the bank of the river.
Floods in the fall. Of 1904 caused the |
mouth Of this third opening to WASH |
considerably, and At each succeeding |
flood the conditions became more seri- |
Gus. The channel; 70 the irrigation ca
nalsSkept growing larger until in
June, 1905, almost the entire discharge |
of the river howediinto the 6alton Sink |
where a lake formed which had an |
area, of about 400 square miles.
Slowly it began to back up and now
back towards the Imperial valley. |
Farmers wore compelled to leave,
farms were inundated. miles and miles
of railroad track and development
went under water. The country be-
CANT a wilderness of VatRr.
Heroic efforts were made to stop the
Hood The railroads. equipment and
facilities were used and considerable
progTe ess made, but the fall floods
washed out part of the work, only to
have it rebuilt
Or November 1, 1906, the break,
whicG had been 500 fest wide, was
closed. and on November Is all leak
age OF water through the dam had been
stoppad. Ii seemed as If the battle had
been won, nut. another Good followed,
and on December s the water worked
its way under the levees south of the
dam BY uGen aon the following day
neeriy the entire Colorado river was
emptying Into the Saiton Sink. The
presn ant OF the United States took a
hand He and Mr.. Hartman ex-
changed numerous kilograms in a dis
cussion as 20 the best course to be
pursasd II was a rather delicate task
for The government to undertake be-
cause an international question WAS
involved While the damage was be-
ing done in the United States the break
was IL Mexico. The upshot of il was
that the Southern Pacific was pledged
10 do the work.
The question as TO what sum shall
be paid to the railroad will be settled
In the Future.~ said the president in
( his mess age OF January. and with that
I underxts nding the work Is being done.
The railroad took hold of things at
lunce. 1t seemed TO the engineers as If
The entire river hank was rotten. The
entire bank of the river would have to
| be levead and strengthened. They
! huilt a railroad and called for more
engineers and more workmen. They
organized "A corps Of levee builders of
mel to build, drain and muck bitches.
and above all, they perfected the flying
| squadron OF break closers. Most i'm
portant were these break closers, as
has been pointed out-high-pressure.
fully equipped fighting men, ready for
all emergencies.
They went at the breaks with fever
J ish haste apz1 there was neither night
{ nor day for them. just twenty-four-
nour periods. They studied the situa
ton until they had every trick of the
old river. every whim and every art!-
hce at their fingers end. The bottom
OF every break was soft. as Mr.. Har-
rIn,an has said. soft and fine.
Epes Randolph. in charge of the
work, utilized a system of brush mat
tress work as the base for all his dams.
and into this he threw his rock all.
Ffrsi they would run a railroad tres
Ting across a break. then they would
put down their mattress. after which
trainIoad after trainload of heavy
stone would come along and splash
| into the water.
Upon the big breaks they used two
trestles. just as in thst break in Janu-
sry 20. The second track would go
asyains st the thrush of water in the form
Of crescsnt. and this would form lrst
an outlying bulwark Of stone, after
WHICH they would fill in the itnerven-
ing space. There isn't much chance
| for any river when they begin to fight
It with fortifications like that
AS rapidly rs the closure work has
gone on. the other phase Of protection