The Churchill county standard. (Fallon, Nev.) 1908-1920, 1909-04-15
IR RIG A ton
RECLAMATION WORK GIGANTIC
IN SCOPE.
Rivals the Panama Canal Pro.
ject in Work Done. OF
Greater Importance.


in the same week by acts Of Congress.
and working side by side since that
time, the Reclamation Service and the
Panama Canal offer Interesting facts
and figures for comparison.
Although the difficulties that beset
the engineers and workers in the Can
al Zone have been numerous and varied
and their achievements worthy Of all
praise, few appreciate the wonderful
progress made by the 'eonquerors Of
the arid West" in the Reclamation
Service. And they have worked
against almost as great odds, been be-
set by as hot sun in summer, and
with SHOWS in winter which latter the
canal folks would doubtless be glad to
have. Moreover, while the men at
Panama have been at work twelve
months in the year. the men in the
West have been able to put in but
eight months.
Most Of the dams that constitute the
first step in the various reclamation
projects, started since the act Of 1902
are located among mountain Businesses
and are not open to the ordinary means
of communication. Whereas the Pan
ANA railroad already existed with ils
rails and wires right alongside the
route Of the canal, it has been neces-
sary, in the Reclamation Service, to
build roads to haul the cement and
other material from railroad to noun
tain site. At Yuma twelve miles of
railroad had to be constructed and the
engineers are now at work on p miles
more in New Mexico.
The nearest project to a railroad is
the 'ruekee-Carson, which Is half a
mile away, while the great Pathfinder
Dam on the North Platte is "a miles
from the nearest railroad station more
than twice the distance across the 18th
mas. And these 81 mics lie acsoss a
blazing desert and up the sides of
rocky mountains.
While work at Panama has been
confined largely to digging, the men of
the Reclamation Service have been bull
ding. They constructed IA dams and
will soon have Is more completed, and
these are immense structures bound by
cement to rocks high up near the
source of the life giving waters.
There have air ready been finished by
the Service, 3,45s3 miles of canals,
more than enough to stretch from New
York to San Francisco. The water
that feeds these comes, in some cases.
by the way of tunnels blasted through
solid rock. Fifty eight tunnels in all
have been constructed, work eonsid-
erably greater than the building of the
New York subway.
The total number of men employed
by the Reclamation Service, including
clerks. is less than II, 900, The num-
ber of employees in the Canal Zone, in
cluding clerks is more than 10000.
The Reclamation Service has started
80 projects, and it will be number of
years before these can be fully devel-
oped If an inspector should start cut
to travel from one project to another
until he. had visited all, he would have
to cover 5000 miles travelling by the
shortest known routes. This means
diversifcation of administrative efforts
and scattering Of men. An inspector
would have to travel less than Al miles
to inspect the entire Panama Canal.
The work Of the Reclamation Service
is beginning to bear fruit Already
675, 5l4 acres Of land have been re-
claimed from the virgin desert, and
27, 600 homes haze been made for fam
lilies in a country formerly worthless
but which now blooms under the magic
of irrigation. This land is valued at
from S22 to $65 dollars an acre but be-
fore the Reclamation Service was
started Uncle Sam couldn't give it a.
way.
1t is conseryatively estimated by en-
gineers that there are 10000, 600 acres
of land that can thus be made useful
in the new arid West and new homes
provided for 1000, 600 people.
The reclaimed land produces crops
to the average value of S25 year per
acre. This means a vast increase in
the wealth of the nation annually, be-
sides the permanent value of the land.
One piece of land in Grand Valley, Col
orado, under the Governments Recla-
nation Service, recently sold for over
81, 600 an acre.
Moreover the work of the service
has not cost the public one cent and
will not cost one cent. The original
fund for reclamation known as the re-