Arizona republican., 1910-03-21
VISITING ENGINEER
 FROM UTAH PROJECT
J. L. lytel Talks Interestingly of tr.
 Strawberry Valley Enterprise.

J. l.. LyteI of Provo. Utah. re-
 of thc Strawberry Valley project. ar
 rived here yesterday for. . cnnsuita-
 ;ion with Supcrvis:n. ,;nsinecr l.. C.
 Lit and also to familiari;;a himself ui,E the Salt River proiecI. which in sun.e ~-ys is similar to that under his Gi.a~.'ion II" ,vpccts to go to ;;,"s-,cIt and alt 'Y rther to si,nd about ten IGys herr
 The Strawberry Valley project em- braces a storage dam that will make reservoir with q capacity of 1J0.oo0 acre feet, the water to be diverted through tunnel :o.000 feet long, about 65O0 feet of which is now oX- cavatcd. to about 65.o0o acres of land in the vicinity of spanish Fork and Payson in the south end of the Utah lake valley. The land condi tions are similar to this valley. in that tho acreage is largely in private ownership. the first settlement dat ing back to 1Sf, There will also he developed considerable. amount uf hydro-elcctric power which k de signed to furnish much revenue to the project similarly to the plans in this valley. There are many points in common with tn" Salt River pro icct though the acreage to be wat cred is less than one-third as large
 But in some other ways the pro- jcct is as different from this one as could well be imagined. The lands to he watcrcd lay at an altitude of from 4500 to 1900 feet while the storage dam only thirty miles away
 is at an altitude of 160O feet. In the farming country the annual snow fall seldom reaches two feet while at the dam site it was nearly six teen feet this year and twenty-five feet deep last year. which is re- garded as some snow. even in that country. Only few weeks ago about the time Engineer Hill visited the project. couple of laborcrs looking for work were caught in the snow and one of them perished. the other escaping narrowly There is considerable change of climate in thirty miles. which in the Salt river project would hardly take one out of the farm lands.
 l found in the location of lands to be .watered In the Strawberry plan the water is taken ont of the Strawberry river and run through mountain into small natural drainage channels and thence to the lands to be wat cred which are not contiguous to the supplying river From the water that goes by the dam. and from the Dy- Shane river. there is an ample sup ply available for all the lands on the lower Strawberry. so the stored water is turned to q locality that has no natural supply for storage.
 There are many auxiliary develop ments possible in connection with this project, not now contemplated. just as there are here, by added power plants when they are needed. lower down on the canals and channels en- dam are in process of construction at the same time the tunnel is being driven. The big part of the job is the tunnel and though it is now in considerably over a mile. that is only regarded as good start. It will be nearly four miles long when finished. A power plant near there is now in use in the driving of tho tunnel. Work on the project began in 1907 and it is too early yet to predict the completion of it. The dam is considered the least trouble some feature of the work, being q comparatively small one. and will not be undertaken until the tunnel is well advanced.
 The country to be watered. says MT. Lytel is 8 fine section about fifty miles from Salt Lake city which of water prospects is selling at $50 to s6o an acre and land that now has water supply is held at s250 per acre. It is estimated that the pro- ject will cost the lands about $40 per acre. The products are apples. peaches. grain. sugar beets. etc. the fruits being grown on the mesa lands. That section has d normal rainfall of from eighteen to twenty inches, not enough to fully supply it and the more velueless for the reason that most of the rain is at the wrong time of the year.