The Roswell daily record. [volume] (Roswell, N.M.) 1903-current, 1909-09-23

states reclamation service was asked
for help and IL spent four years in IN
Nestigating before 1t undertook the
work of building the tunnel. which
has taken up another four years.
The total cost OF uhe tunnel will be
over $4,000, 900. hut the peculiar fea-
iure Is that Uncle Sam only loans this
money to the farmers who are to be
reft by receiving wafer. OF all the
millions spent by the government in
various public improvements. this Is
probably the first time in history that
any Of the money has been paid back.
The total cost of building the tunnel
l. 10 lie divided among the farmers.
cccording to the acreage they pos
sess.
II was said that 10000 families
could find homes and good incomes
oa tSis land. and the statement was
In no wise exaggerated. Delta coun-
ty. in which a greater part of the land
is located. IS one of the greatest frIit
producing sections in the west and
the biggest in the state of Colorado
ANY fruit grower who -nakes less than
S100 an acre off his land thinks he
has had crop failure. and the profits
have run up as high as 1900. With
an average of $500. or even less off
l5-acre tract. il will he seen that the
farmer will have a good income. The
great fertility of the land was one OF
the points which determined the gov
ernment 10 build the tunnel
The people who have settled in Del
tn county also are peculiar for n
farming community. A large percen-
tage of them are former professional
men wearied or broken dow1 by the
strain of life in the city. These are
n-en who become most successful, for
they have trained intellects and are
aNln to get the best results from their
farms.
One can get some slight idea of the
size of the tunnel from figures. II Is
six miles long and cross section is
12N1S feet. Every inch of II is ce-
ment-lined. and it delivers 1900 cubic
feet of water every second. AS the
water flows out into the bitches it
will be used to develop electricity to
furnish light and power for Delta
county. And all built for the interest
of S5.OO0.0G0 for ten years. which is
the time given the farmers TO pay
lack their money.
In the four years il took TO blast
ont the Gunnison tunnel many thrill
ing experiences came TO the men en-
eaged i'm the work. II was a long and
tireless task, boring through the eter-
nal fastness of that huge mountain.
For the most part the rock is vol
canic i'm character of the Archaic per
/ iod. tough and obdurate. Yet there
we're adventures along the route. A
few times there were finds in the way
or nuggets of gold. Several times
/ they encountered streams of hot wa
ter, but more often streams of cold
water some of them highly mineral
/ in character. Sometimes following
the heavv blasts millions of gallons of
water rushed in upon the work-nen,
who had to battle for their lives. Near
! the valley end OF the tunnel an old
ocean bed was found. and in the rock
! countless numbers of sea shells of
! different sizes. Through this rock
the work was very dangerous and re-
! quired constant timpering. In the
! spring of 1905 the drills ran into an
1 underground stream which caused a
cave-in. and for forty-eight hours n
| number of workmen were buried
alive. A shaft was sunk from the out
side and the men were saved. The
number of men that were caught in
the cave-in were pinned down by
rocks. but those who were free to
work had shoveled up dikes to keer
the water away from their injured
comrades. and thus saving their lives
The human race has never vet ac
complished such a marvel as this
| tunnel. II is the longest underground
! y aterway ever constructed. and II +
the cause for congratulation that Il
has been built without the loss of a
human life.