Bisbee daily review., 1909-04-15
BREEZY BITS . IF NEWS FROM
 THE BIC DAM
Something Doing Every Day at Site of Great Reservoir Be- ing Built by the United States

The following breezy correspond enee from Roosevelt. where the gov ernment is building the mammoth storage reservoir. is taken from the Arizona Republican
 ~The highest point of the dam above datum stands at 12S feet for a small portion. Dividing the remain der into thirds we have an average height above datum of, l25 feet for the first third, 109 feet above datum for the intermediate and an average of s9 for the balance. The lakes area has been enlarged by the recent in rush of water from the snow encrust- ed mountains in our background brought on by the exertions of old Sol coming nearer every day. Two of the gates are wide open at the dam but it has been impossible to let the water go out as fast es it has been coming in.
 The surface of the lake has been rising gradually until today when it about held it's own. The present ele- vation of the lake stands at S1 1-2 feet at the dam. One of the gates has remained shut during this time to facilitate repair work on 1t. Four thousand yards is the total for this month up to tonight, Thursday the Sth. Sunday last not contributing any addition as things were at a stand still that day. Otherwise the per diem average stands at about 600 GU bic yards.
 'SThe correct figures for the month of March stand at 300 cubic feet over 1S.000 as approximated in our last letter. Do the people who are inter ested in the dam realize what has been done here in the way of cement and rock that has been laid between the walls of the canyon from the first stone up to the present date? Piece by piece and bucket by bucketful. Well. here you are in round numbers. . 210,000 cubic yards. Yards not feet Take a look at some of your largest buildings, find the number of cubic yards in them, exercise your imagt nation a little bit; and possibly you can form some idea as to what a chunk of masonry has been brought together in body. to assist in wedg- ing up a canyon up here in the wilds of Arizona. Or take one of your pr.n- cipal streets for instance. Say, one about 126 feet wide from front of building on one side to the front of
 
 Say in addition to this you have a building 60 feet high to compare with. Now commence at the corner of the street and measure 750 feet long or take z50 good long steps With this length. height and width filled up with a solid mass of concrete and rock you have a solid mass of the dam before your minds eye. The much better way to do. however, would be to take a short vacation and take run up here and see it in its bodily shape, mass, etc. See the waters of the lake backed up behind and beating restsessly and futilely against it like some imprisoned spir- 1t. Or see the mad rush of the wat CTS as 1t leaves the mouth of the tun- nel after escaping from the basin above the dam. Take in the artificial waterfall occasioned by the escape of the surplus water in the power ca nal to the lake below, a distance of some 300 feet. See it as 1t dashes from rock to rock or takes a clean jump of thirty or forty feet in some places. With the spray reaching out for a distance of fifty feet or more. Stand on the little bridge below and in front of the largest drop and ex- perience few thrills such as only nature in a seemingly angry mood can give. The chances are you will get wet all right, but a little thing like that don't amount to anything here as all you have 10 do afterwards ls 10 give the sun a whack at you for few minutes and you will never know you had been wet.
 Then take in the powerhouse with its huge machines and internal buzz ing as it puts a harness on the i'm mense body of water passing through the penstocks from the canal above and converts the force of the water rush,ns down from the canal above into that which is more powerful than steam and cheaper commodity than any other known power EIectricitvl