Bisbee daily review., 1907-08-04
HARTMAN SAVES
 IMPERIAL VALLEY
Responds to Appeal From Roosevelt and Dams the
 Colorado River.

CHICAGO, Aug. s.--with the an- rouncement that the break in the Colorado river has been closed and the Imperial valley saved ends, for the time being. at least. the most heroic battle ever fought by man with na- Jure. The reward was nothing less than the homes of 10000 people and five millions of dollars. Man, in the guise of corporation. has triumphed. and the river. ages old. has been fore ed back into the channel from which it threatened to engulf rarm, town and railroad. That hero of the crusades who cast his helmet inro the midst of the Saracen hordes and swept them before the Red Gross was not more bold than the prosaic engineers who undertook to curb the Colorado. In this attempt there was only one precedent-failure.
 Nevertheless. President RooseveIt's summons of last December was promptly answered. On the goth of that month MT. Roosevelt autographed to Mir Hartman: Tt seems clear to me that 1t is the imperative duty of the caIifornnia Development Com pany to close this break at once. {" This break" was a gap a fifth of a mile long through which the river, at a depth of thirty feet, was rushing into the Salton sink. Imagine an enormous teacup with river flowing ah.,,. ;ss ,-;,,, oD5 .-o,, b..,a fba g{tu- alton clearly outlined. To irrigate the wonderfully rich 1oam of the cup. the river had been reckiessiy tapped. From an irrigation canal, it's waters became a raging torrent that only almost superhuman enort could con- troi. Now the declaration that the river has been forced back into its banks and that "affafrs at the river have been turned back 70 The Caiif- ornia Development Association ' marks the triumph Of rne Hartman engineers.
 Against a flow of water that had resisted every effort 10 control it, the Southern Pacific titans in fifteen days and two hours erected dam contain ing 7T, GOO cubic yards ox rock, gravel and clay. The locomotives of pas senger trains were not too important to be called upon to help in this task. Men worked without teasing for sleep-hardly for rood-that the ''break" might be closed. In money the Southern Pacific Railroad, inter- ested in behalf of the company that had Ioosened the rivers bonds and as one of the sufferers rom the rivers havoc. has advanced sI,500,000 to re- pair the break. In faoor, the railr road company has spent the efforts of its most skilfull engineers and of thousands of Iaborers, day in and day out, night following night.
 The actual work or canning the Colorado was done in two weeks after the Presidents call to pick and shovej The formal announcement was delay ed only for the finishing touches be- cause the Colorado mas been "con. trolled" before this, only to break its bonds Now there is a sixty-foo dam. four feet above the highest known water, and the settlers whC discovered that the "Salton Sink" wa' an out-of- door paradise for the al most magical growing of fruits ant vegetables have returned to theil homesteads in secure faith that the river. their greatest enemy. has beer finally conquered The railroad will replace it's washedaway tracks and trestles and it is believed that the I'm periaI valley farmers may safely trusl that there is nothing more to feal from the river.