East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1908-08-18

OF frendliness.
Such is the Umatilla desert.
Such is the picture which within
ye ar shall have passed from the mar
by the activity Of progressive and pa
ternal government. This hitherto
hopeless plain had been an accident
a hiatus in the schemes Of the god
head Hedged and walled by verdant
fruitful districts, encircled by the
flashing ripples of two laughing rlv-
ers, bathed in the golden glory Of an
unclouded sun, 1t has lain like the
body Of giant into which the water
spirit had forgotten to breathe its
breath Of life.
Miracle at Hand.
But the traveller, looking from the
highlands to the valley, may see
eastward like a soft blue sapphire
and westward like a square Of EN-,
erald jade set in a plaque Of Roman
gold. the reservoir above and the
first oasis at Hermiston five miles
below.
The miracle of the waters is a,
hand.
Several years ago the government
sent out scientists into the district
They came with microscopes and SEX
tants and theodolites and straddle,
bugs. They analyzed the soil, they
sampled the air, they tasted the wa,
ter, they dissected the sunbeams and
they measured the tract as a tailor
measuring a customer for a new
garment.
a few years later the nephews of
Uncle Sam-they Of the reclamation
service-came to wipe the desert off
the map. II is an interesting work;
truly olympic game. Like Titans
they tore down mountains and piled
them in the gorge; they reached 26
miles away and snatched the thread
of silver from the derelict Umatilla
river, they made a lake and tomorrow
they will make garden and a forest
and a commonwealth.
Today the desert lies below that
lake in the blistering sun and quivers
in expectation. At last the sleeping
giant is to come into its own.
A Monster Task.
Two hundred and fifty men toied
two years to build that dam at
cost Of nearly a million and a quar-
ter dollars Half a dozen L. S. r. S.
locomotives hauled their hundred
dump cars hundred teams sweated
in the burning sun. Five hundred
feet in thickness at its base, a hun
dred feet high, $500 feet in length,
the biggest earthen dam in the world
holds back enough water to cover the
22, 600 acres of the tract with depth
of two and a half feet.
As Moses struck the rock and the
water gushed forth, go the man in the
water tower pulls his lever and the
life-giving fluid is freed to make a
jungle of a Sahara
At present the main conduit Is
watering only the land adjacent to
Hermston city, where city has
sprung up in n year, Here is made
the tile which cuts so important a
figure in the tract, for this project
will probably have less open ditch
than any other proiect in America.
Thirty men are employed at the tile
factory to make five miles of piping,
One link of this conduit tile is
wagon load for four horses, who re-
quire an entire day to haul It to its
destination, with four men to load
and unload it. The link is eight feet
in length and two inches less than
four feet in diameter.
This is the largest concrete pipe
in the world. 1t Is reinforced with
steel wire The tiles are laid along
the line of the main bitches on the
grades and will all be set and Joined |
this winter after the factory has COM
pleted the five miles of pipe 1t must
make.
The lateral pipes are smaller and |
measure respectively 80, 16 and 10
inches.
Running Water Uphill.
This project is unlike any other
government irrigation scheme in the
of engineering perplexities It |
has presented. The country is rolling
with waves Of ground which make
water grades a despair, Much as
Uncle Sam can do he cannot make
water run up hill.
Yet to bring a gushing fountain to
the high point in every 40 acres is