Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1911-03-31


IM ton at which Colonel Roosevelt
was the guest of honor, is the
is yst0ne Of one Of the greatest irri-
SatiOn projects ever built. The dam
itself is one of the largest in the
world.
The lake the dam creates is said to
be the largest artificial body Of water
in the world Behind the dam, when
the lake is full, will be $1,000, 100000
gallons OF water This quantity of
water, in Irrigation terms, is 100000
acre-feet, or enough to cover 100000
acres with one foot of water. There
are about 100000 acres to be irrigated
by water from the dam, so there al
ways will be water in plenty and to
spare.
About seventy miles northeast Of
Phoenix, Ariz., the Salt River runs,
through g. deep and narrow gorge.
Across this gorge the Roosevelt dam
was built. wedge-shaped wall OF
masonry 284 feet high, 1GS feet thick
and 200 feet wide at the base, 20 feet
thick and 200 feet wide at the top.
Located in canyon heretofore in
accessible, the construction Of this
dam involved many problems and
taxed the ingenuity OF the builders to
the utmost First broad highway
was built For 20 miles this traverses
a trackless desert and then for ~
miles the road was literally carved
from canyon walls or blasted from the
steep sided mountains. II is one OF
the most remarkable highways in the
world, opening up to the tourist
country Of unriValed grandeur and
beauty and making easy of access
some Of the best preserved cliff dwell
lings in the southwe est.
In prosecuting its work the govern
ment engaged in many activities. An
immense power plant was installed
near the dam site. A cement mill with
a daily capacity of 500 barrels was
built and has turned out 100000 bar
rels at a saving Of more than $615, 1000.
The dam contains 100000 cubic yards
of masonry and 100000 barrels of
cement To have bought this cement
and had it shipped by rail to the near
est railroad point and hauled by
wagon to the dam site would have
greatly increased the cost, so the en-
gineers built a mill and made the ce-
ment at half of what it otherwise
would have cost. A sawmill was built
to cut all the timber needed.
Around these mills and the dam
grew up the town Of Roosevelt with a
population of 5000, its sole support
being the 100000 the government
was spending to complete the huge
reservoir. Now that the dam is prac-
tically complete the town is dwindling
in population and soon the last YES
tige Of it will disappear beneath the
slowly rising waters of the lake.
The work of the Roosevelt dam was
begun five years ago. The dam site
was In a wild, isolated spot among
rugged mountains and first of all it
was necessary to build wagon roads
from the railroads to the site and
power canal, 20 miles long, which cost
} lSU,UUU. luSSC, Will liiS oct HILL, CllS
refrigerating plant, the water works,
the electric light plant, the machine
shop, the rock crushing plant, the va
ricus buildings, cost nearly s2,000,000
before a stone was laid in the dam.
Two farms were operated to supply
provisions for the camp and forage
for the livestock. Domestic water
supply was piped from springs several
miles distant Nearly 600 Apache In
dams were employed for several
years as laborers. A telephone line
more than 100 miles long and a power
transmission line rs miles long were
both constructed and have been in op-
Grafton for some time.
While the big Roosevelt dam has
been the most important single struc