The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1910-07-10
ROOSEVELT DAM
NOW COMPLETED
PRESIDENT TAFT TO PRESS BUT
TON TO OPEN THE GATES OF
GREAT ARIZONA PROJECT.

figures would be to say that the wall
is 2S4 feet high. Put it beside the
capitol at Washington and 1t wou'i
hide il to the dome. Two fouc-horse
teams could pass on the top, so wide
is it, and you could make race
track on the crest, for it is nearly
a quarter of a mile long Mes, OF
the wall rests on stones big enough
for team of horses and a wagol to
stand on, and weighing sixteen tons
each.
For nearly four years men and MA
chinery have been raising this bar
rier in a mountain rift of the Sonth-
west. 1t is one of the worlds great
est engineering feats and gives Amer
lea the largest water reservoir in the
world for the purpose of nourishinS
the land.
The camera cannot do justice to
this wall Only when you stan F! at
the base ana. looking up, see it tow
ering high above you, can you real
ize its dimensions. 1t will hold back
an inland lake intended to contain
enough water to flood 1000 square
miles to the depth of foot. That
lake extends back in the valleys
twenty miles, and near the dam it
will be more than $50 feet from sur
face to bottom.
In 1902 a little party of dus!
covered men dsmounted from their
burros in the Salt river valley. ~
was not an inviting spot, the place
where they pitched their tents. True.
Salt river, flowed nearby-a shall
low stream, thick with what had
once been allIali dust blown into it
by the desert winds. Unfit to drink,
the river water was suitable onlJ
for washing, and the men had to
slake their thirst from the casks in
the water wagon. Their food came
or the backs of the pack ponies, for
not thing to eat could they get in
this region.
Forty miles fl ON anywhere, mean
ing even a single human nabita.
ton, this party of engineers ha aed
in that desolate valley long enough
to measure its width, the height of
the cliffs forming it on either side,
and to study the rock strata. They
drilled holes in the river bed, 10 de-
termine the thickness of the solid
rock. Then, finally they pulleI the
tent pegs, packed up their surveying
kits and started back into the worlc
The mission of these men was to
learn if that rift in Arizona could
be walled, because right here in the
desert was an opportunity to control
forces Of nature for the use and con-
venience of many. This rent in the
earth, if barred would cause the
Salt river and it's branches to swell
until they were turned into lake,
and this lake could be made to turn
the waste into a land of plenty.
The valley of the Salt river Is so
situated as to form one of the most
arid portions of America. Yet here
the worlds greatest water supp,
works has been created The quan-
tity of water to be stored is much
larger than the volume held in stor-
age by the greatest Nile reservoir
Verde and Salt rivers, furnishing
the supply drain a basin of $3.50
square miles. The average yearly
rainfall in this basin is not more
than twenty inches. The annual
rainfall upon the territory to be irri-
gated ranges from three to ten
inches, and the rapid evaporation of
moisture is indicated by the fact
that the temperature in summer
ranges as high as 12O degrees. al.
though the elevation varies from l..
WV " if'VV AtCl dDONt lut sea.
Work upon the construction of the
dam proper has been in progress
only since September 20, 1906. owing
TO the great amount of labor required
in making the excavations to bed
rock. When it is remembered that
the height OF the dam above the rock
is 2S4 feet, the length at the bot.
tom 235 feet and the length at the
top 1850 feet, the time and labor
required in preparing the site for
the wall do not seem excessive.
How to get the immense quantity
of concrete needed was a question.
The railroad was so far away that
the cost of wagon haul was more
than the price of the government
must pay the nearest manufacture.
The biologists began tapping the
rocks with their hammers and look
ing at the sands through their mag