Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1908-07-09
From Colorado,


D. G. Groves, who reside at River
Portal, Col, where the Dr., is located
for the benefit of his health, sends us
the Denver Sunday Times, of June 21st,
containing an interesting description of
the town, written by William Atherton
Du Puy. In order that our readers
may know what great work this gov
ernment is doing, we publish the arti-
Gle, which is headed, Sunshine Only
Twenty Minutes Day''.
There is a thriving, bustling town
in the West where the rays of the sun
are felt only twenty minutes out of
| every twenty-four hours River Por-
tai, in the Gunnison Canon in Colora-
do, is the town, and the beetling preci-
pices that overhang it, leaving only
strip of blue above, are responsible for
the briefness of the sunshine.
| 1t is town of romance from the
viewpoint of endeavor and accomplish
| ment and the task on which its inhabi-
tants are engaged is like that accomp-
lished when Hercules turned the Ri yer
Styx into the Augean stables and
cleaned them. But here it is a roaring
mountain torrent that is to be turned
| into tunnel pierced six miles under
mountain of solid rock, that its floods
| may spread out on the deserts and
make them fertile for American farmers
Uncle Sam himself is back of the en-
terprise and has built the town. Five
years ago Gunnson Canon was an un-
| solved my ystery. At it's upper end,
where it entered gorge with perpen-
dicular cliffs rising three th ousand feet,
| men had looked into its frothing rapids
! and turned back Twenty-four miles
| below, the canon became again accessi-
BILE, and men had come and watched
the waters tumbling down from above,
and had found no way of ascent
AT the upper end had been built the
strongest RATS that men knew how to
put together, and these had been start
ed through the gorge. Those below
had watched for and rescued frag
ments of these RATS. In this land of
adventure two men had been found
bold enough to dare to attempt at run
ming the canon for the mere love of
the danger; but their bodies were
broken to pieces on the rocks.
Such were the conditions when en-
gineers of the Reclamation Service
| looked on the Gunnison River running
to waste, and calculated its value if it
| could be transferred to the other side
of the mountain and spread over the
level plain. Here the Uncompahgre
was under control; but it was INSULT
cient to accomplish much toward re-
claiming the great stretches of land
available
But engineering skill was brought to
bear, and the thing is being done.
Men were let down on scaffolds with
| block and tackle over cliffs half mile
high, to take observations ofthe stream
and finally party was fitted out on
| pneumatic RATS and succeeded in get.
ting through the canon. Half way
down they found nook from which,
in the course of erosion,a great block of
mountain side had tumbled into the
stream and been eaten away. From
this point it was decided that the tun-
mel should be sent through the noun
tain, and the town for the men that did
the work should be established in the
| cove.
So River Portal came into existence.
| 1t has to. day five hundred people, who
| boast of civilization and opportuni-
| ties that will compare favorably with
any town of it's size in the East. The
men that are building the tunnel have
brought their families to dwell in the
| eternal shade of the canon. Uncle
Sam also maintains hospital for the
care of his sick, and library where
the inhabitants may read the best and
| latest neWspapera, magazines and
| books. There is well equipped pub
lie school, an electric lighting plant,
and pumping plant for the village
water supply. Terraces have been
leveled for the houses, which rise one
above the other up the mountainside.
The stream has been crowded back as
far as possible toward the opposite
bank, and land built up for other
buildings. A government road has
been cut from the solid rock of the
mountain, and pitches into the canon,
at a grade of twenty-four per cent.
The sun rises at eleven twent-
each morning and sets twenty IS,
| later; but the men need nor ..e, as
they are at work under :, and it
could never reach tb>