Arizona republican., 1910-02-03

course of numberless centuries formed a gorge eight miles in length and several hundred feet deep. leaving the lake bed dry. Behind the solid moun- tain of masonry just completed by the reclamation service the angry flood waters of the Shoshone river will be held until once more the ancient lake is created-this time to be held for the use and benefit of the settlers on 132. 900 acres of land.
 Before work could be commenced on the dam the government found it necessary to construct a wagon road through the almost inaccessible gorge worn by the river. In many places this roadbed is tunneled through the rocky sides of the granite walls, and for several miles the road was blasted out of the sheer granite face of Rat tlesnake mountain. This road now forms the first eight miles of Cody's magnificent route to the National park. An entire year was required to complete the wagon road.
 The storage capacity of the big reservoir will be 456,000 acre feet. The main canals will be sixty miles in length. and the laterals 15O miles. only the flood waters of the Sho- shone river will be impounded. and it is estimated that it will require two years to fill the lake to its capacity. although the project has a drainage area of 1880 square miles. Many fine ranches-now the property of the gov ernment-Will be completely sub merged by the impounded waters.
 The first American to visit the vii cinity of the Shoshone dam was John Colter. He had been with Lewis and Clark on their famous trip of eN- ploration to the northwest. but on the return trip left the party to trap and hunt on the Upper Missouri. La ter he joined a party under Lisa. the enterprising Spanish explorer. and ac- companied it to the Big Horn river. Two years were spent in hunting and trapping on the Big Horn and it's tributaries. and it was while here that Colter discovered the Shoshone can yOn and the now famous hot mineral springs of Cody Golfers stories of the wonders of the region now in corporated in the Yellowstone park were received with derision by trap pers and traders with whom he later associated, and it was nearly fifty years before that now famous region received official notice and explora- tiOn began
 It was Colonel William F. Cody. whose ranch properties are in the Shoshone valley, who originally un- dertOok the fertilization of the section. In company with his old partner, Nate Salisbury, George Bleistein, Bronson Rumsey, George T. Beck and H. c. Aiger. he organized the Sho- shone Land Irrigation company. For lack of funds the company could not carry on the work it had planned. but after the passage of the national irri- gation law the government took up the matter Experiments showed that with irrigation an annual yield of wheat amounting to seventy bushels an acre. potatoes of bulk of one thousand bushels an acre and three crops of alfalfa a season could be produced from the soil
 The dam was begun in September. 1905. the contract for the structure being let for s515.73O. The contract ors, Prendergast X Clarkson. default ed in August, 1906. and from that time the work was carried on by the sureties.
 With a surface area of ten square miles and an average depth of seventy feet. the capacity of the reservoir Is figured at 14s, ,5ss.512,O0O gallons.