The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1910-07-17
GREATEST ARTIFICIAL
WATER RESERVOIR
ENGINEERS NOW COMPLETING
SURVEY OF ELEPHANT BUTTE
IRRIGATION PROJECT.

san A-tonio. Texas, July lo.-Gov-
ernment engineers are now complet-
ing the final surveys OF the Elepnsn.
Butte irrigation project and work on
the main reservoir will commence a
soon as a 15-mile railroad can be built
from the dam site TO the A:chison'
Topeka and Santa Fe near BUgle'
y. VI.
The Elephant Butte irrigation pro-
ject will be the biggest artificial
water storage in eXls-cuce when
completed. The main reservoir At
Engle will be over fog-y miles in
length and will reach an average
Of nearly four miles. varying from
three 10 six miles. 10 t WI be
stored approximately G9O,9O0 OOo'Coo
gallons or 1000. .000 acre-ieet Of va
ter and it would axe the entire
flow of the ioR Grande for thre
wears 70 fill the reservoir. IL. order
not to interfere with rrlga,ion fur
ther down the river the waite VIII
be impoun ed gradually and an in
creasing reserve will be accumu
lated during the flood seasons o.
the river. 1t Is expected that frori
four TO ten years must elapse be-
for the reservoir of the project
shall have been filled to capacity.
The Engle reservoir will wipe OUT
five settlements besides inundating
about $50 square miles OF territory
in New Mexico. The Leasburk and
f, Paso projects will also flood con
siderable territory though they are
merely diversion dams. A number
OF smaller dams will have TO be
built at points along the Engle res
ervoir, one of them TO be located at
Las Cruces, y. NJ None of these,
however. will have reservoirs OF
their own and all of them will de-
pend upon their water supply in the
Engle lake.
The main dam of the Engle reser-
voir will be 1900 feet in length at
its crest and will be about 20 feet
in thickness. It's greatest height will
/ be 275 feet above the bed of the
river. Reinforced concrete will be EN-
ployed throughout.
Until the railroad is built very
| little work can be done on the dam
! for the reason that most of the
/ machinery to be used is too heavy to
/ be moved by any other method than
on rails. Moreover a small army Of
men will have to be suppliei with
all the necessities of life for two
and possibly three years and this
alone would be a great undertaking
would it have to be done over the
ordinary road. At present about $50
men are employed at Engle, but
this force will be augmented to about
1000 as soon as work on the dam
commences in real earnest. The
appropriation now available for the
work is sS,0OO,0OO, and unless some
thing unforeseen happens will be
seuficient to carry out the undertak-
ing.
II will be possible to irrigate from
the Engle reservoir several million
acres of very fine valley lands suit
ei TO the cultivation of practically
every crop, The dam will also pre-
vent the heavy spring floods which
in the past have caused a great deal
of anxiety and damage along the
river each year. Before the project
could be carried out an agreement
had to be reached between this
country and Mexico. By its terms
the United States gives to farmers
along the Mexican bank of the river
as much water as they used prior
to the construction Of the irrigation
work affecting the Rio Grande in
its course through Colorado.
The Elephant Butte project is of
far greater magnitude than the As
suan dam on the Nile river and will
hold at least twice as much water.
The climate OF the country to be
benefited by the enterprise is very
salubrious and there is very fine
soil of a silt character The Elephant
Butte project Will have a regulating
influence on the Rio Grande along
its entire course.
George Frisbee Hoar once said to
Senator John James Ingalls,. when