, 1908-05-08
CHAIN OF
RESERVOIRS
ENGINEERS COMPLETE PLANS
FOR SYSTEM OF DAMS THAT
WILL CONSERVE WATER.
Enough to Equal from Eight to Ten
Thousand Acre Feet at Minimum
of Cost, With Tremendous lrriga.
ton and Power Purposes-LittIe
Evaporation in Heat Of Summer.

Charles Bellamy & Son, the civil
engineers, have just completed the
plats and surveys for the chain of res
Snowy range, at the head of the north
fork of the Little Laramie river, and
are now interesting a development
company in the plan to create a stor
age reservoir system impounding from
5000 to 10000 acre feet of water.
Twelve dams will be required, the
dams and bitches representing an es-
timated outlay of not more than $780,
900, and when completed making a
volume of water capable of reclaim
ing a large area of land for which no
water provision has yet been made or
a be made at SO small an outlay.
The proposed reservoirs lay in a row
along the head of the river and the
dams will store the water one below
the other, SO that the emptying of the
upper one will tend to turn an i'm
mense amount of water loose from
the lower one.
Evaporation Avoided.
One of the features of this mode Of
storing water not given attention by
the average mind is the amount of
evaporation saved over the open-air
reservoir, where the sun has full sweep
for the whole of the summer. The
proposed reservoirs lay well up in the
mountains, where the water is never
free from snow and Ice INT where
there is comparatively small evapora-
ton. The ratio of evaporation, Mr..
Bellamy estimates, will be as 10 to IL
or ever 9 to 10. The sun beats down
upon the snow and ice, and instead
of evaporating the water, as it would
4 a warmer location, the ice melts
and runs underneath, raising the sur
face and not losing a very large
amount into the air.
Embarrassed Power.
A feature taken into consideration
in the plan is the immense water
power developed in passing the water
from one reservoir to the other. Thou
sands Of horsepower will be available
in this manner, with no waste Of wa
ter for irrigation purposes and pro-
viding a means of Harvesting the pow
er that could be used to advantage
over the whole area covered by the
impounded water at the minimum OF
cost. No estimate of the amount OF
horse power now used in various forms
in the Little Laramie valley has been
made, but the assertion is made in
connection with these storage reser-
voirs that enough electricity could be
generated by the fall of water between
the dams to turn every wheel and light
every dark place in the region in
volved, at. less cost than the power
now used, to say nothing of the added
advantage of roadways lighted by arc
lamps at intervals, every farmhouse
and barn lighted by incandescent
lamps, every t~heshIng machine and
gang pillow driven by electric current
and every store, school house and
church supplied with illumination, at
little more cost than that OF installa-
ton and maintenance.
Interesting Men Of Means.
The Messrs. Bellamy are now taking
the matter up with men of means in
a plan to develop the work and get
the flood waters stored against an
other irrigating season. One of the
companies TO be benefited in large
measure by the new system would be
the Millbrook holdings. now under the
management OF the Laramie Develop
ment company, n the members OF
that company are being made &c
quainted with the facts.