The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1911-12-29
JACKSON DAM is COMPLETED
An Interesting Story of Facts Re-
garding Its Construction

(E. w. Bowman in Capital News)
The casual reader, glancing
through the columns of his evening
paper, notes the announcement of
the completion of this big project or
the finishing of that gigantic dam,
each an integral part OF the govern
ment's plan for fostering western
development and making possible in
natural arid wastes tremendous pro-
dustion of human foods. The dam is
built, the reservoir finished, the wa
ter Is made available for another
hundred thousand or so acres of land
and to the ordinary reader the Incl
dent is closed-no real conception is
had of the magnitude OF the enter
prise, the immense benefits that hui
mainly will receive, the stern strug-
giles the silent watchful men VINO are
doing the big things of the West have
had in ~conquering the inexitable diff
ficulties of achievement, or of the
romance, the tragedy, the comedy,
the sweat, the toll, finally the tri-
umph of brain and Drawn over nature
and natures sullen rebellion against
human mastery.
Over in southern Idaho there is a
great body of land-approximate.y
10000 acres-that men needed for
homes, for use that they might ap.
ply their efforts to the soil and reap
from their labor, food that they
might live. Nature made that vast
tract a desert. Men determined to
subdue the primal wastes and SO the
Minidoka project had it's inception.
Government Took Up Work
The task was too great for Individ-
uals: the cost too heavy for private
enterprise so the fulfillment of this
big effort was taken up by the gov
eminent. The slow, sure machinery
of large determination vas put In
motion and a steady grim, relentless
war was waged-the people agains,
the earth.
Settlers flocked to the sage COW
cred plains, men and women came
and built shacks, came and prepared
for the coming of the water. Men
and women fought poverty ana
struggled in the lonesome desert
against despair and waited for the
water. Men left their wives and ba.
bies in the pitiful little shacks out
on the bleak desert and went out ana
grubbed sage brush, made bitches
through the sand and waited for the
water-and swore at the slowness or
the government, damned themselves
for fools-but while they swore they
still struggled, for someway there
was a hope, there was a faith that
it would all come right. And the
women stayed all day in the shacks
and skimped and saved and made the
place look as much like home as they
could and tended the babies-and
sometimes their eyes were red with
weeping.
All the time the government was
Notwithstanding, doggedly, silent
ly working, day and night and a big
dam was being built across the
treacherous, the mighty, the uortu-
Gus Snake river.
So the months foiled by and the
fullness of time the concrete forms
were filled, the river was conquered
and the waters pressed hard against
the man-made masonry-and the ev-
ening and the morning papers told
the people sitting snu and warm
beside their hearths that "the dam
was finished and water ready for the
Minidoka project"
Up at the works there was a sigh
of relief as tired muscles relaxed
when minds long burdened with big
responsibility, with strenuous, kill
ing concentration, realized that the
work was done and blue prints ano
maps and estimates could be folded
and filed away and men with new
lines in their faces, with more gray
hairs along their temples, but with
the joy of achievement in their hearts
hastened back to homes and wives
and babies or sweethearts, who had
long waited for their coming.
Gladness on the Desert
On the desert there was gladness
and hope sprung up arresh in the
hearts of the weary and the little
cabins were cheerful for the water
was coming.
So the great Minidoka dam was
built and crops were planted and
the headgates were opened and the
thirsty desert drank the water and
there was not enough, when the dry
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