The Detroit times., 1911-03-17
BY FRANK HARRIS eLloHToN.

Roosevelt dam irrigation system ii
the greatest work Of the kind evel
undertaken in the new world. II ranks
among the very greatest works Of the
kind ever undertaken anywhere, new
world or old. II has cost $4,000, OOt
and seven and half years OF time &c
build IL. Through more than 5O(
miles of canals II will supply water
to more than 100000 acres Of arid
land.
III went 10 the man under whose
lguidance this herculean task has been
completed, and asked him to tell me
about how II was done.
That man, Louis @. Hill, reclama
Etion chief OF engineering, received me
in his Phenix Office. II is 80 miles
Il as the crow flies, thence TO the Roose-
iyelt dam, rs miles by the road, but
iit was but half a block from the office
i to q ditch trimming with water from
THE dam. A block away were running
hstreet cars driven by power generated
at the dam. The very incandescents
over Mr.. Hills desk were lighted by
icurrent produced by water from the
Idam.
The engineers story sounded like
Ia chapter from The Swiss Family
H Robinson."
I'VE built out own roads" said he.
A125 miles OF them. We installed our
sown mill to make cement. and thus
saved 100000. We installed our own
spower houses. We redug old canals
land put In many tons OF reinforced
kconcrete work. We Quarried our own
Nstone. We sawed our own lumber
I'VE even burned our own brick.
+. - frxx
kthe work-including Pima and Apache
IndianS from the neighborhood. SO
expert did these become that We NOV
ed whole units OF our construction
camp from one section Of the work
Ito the other, retaining the same men
fand the same tools.
When the development of the irri-
cation project was taken up on the
Sacaton reservation the Indians, un.
der the white foremans direction, did
all the work, and on this land they
NOW use from 500 TO 1000-horsepower
OF electrical energy per day TO irri-
II gate their lands by the subsidiary
4pumping system which We have In
Hstalled.
You see. the gravity canals from
the great dam will not suffice for the
IA
I'VE pump, getting our power from the
2fall OF the water which afterward irri-
Egntes the other lands by the gravity
Nsystem. In this way, the project takes
tcare Of 10000 acres OF land which the
gravity system alone could not sup
tply."
Twenty men have given their lives
n during the construction Of the dam.
a. ~ fall ha fon a
4 Of the dam to the floor of the gorge
below. Chief Engineer Hill himself
had q narrow escape, and only by
grasping the sides OF a derrick plat
form Through hole in which he had
kfallen). was he saved from the terrific
j drop from the apex OF the dam to the
Hbase.
# Great foods hampered the progress
or the work-the very first piling driv-
en- by the contractors was washed out
All OF the machinery and supplies hac
TO be transported for miles up the
government-built roads traversing the
fSuperstition mountains and those OF
the Mazatzal range. Lumber camps,
Ngrubbing timber from the forest
%primeval, with her and there a saw
mill, dotted the Sierra Ancha ranges
further to the northeast.
Lumber, metal and men all met at
1.-THE city OF Roosevelt and thus the dam
1Grew-a huge curved wedge filling the
xspace between two mountain slopes
FBehind this srched wedge, whose
breast curves inward to resist the
weight OF the inland lake now accum
ulating, lie liquid dollars--a treasure
for the people on the 100000 acres
leach Of which has already been In.
"A creased In value four to twenty.fold.
The water needed for irrigation Il