Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1911-04-05

"a nix, AriZ., which was recently
put Into service with a celebra-
ton at which Colonel Roosevelt
was the guest Of honor, is the
keystone Of one of the greatest irri-
cation projects ever built The dam
itself Is one CT 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 61,000,000,000
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 deep and narrow gorge.
Across this gorge the Roosevelt dam
was built, q wedge-shaped wall Of
masonry 2S4 feet high, 1853 feet thick
and 200 feet wide at the base, 20 feet
thick and 1000 feet wide at the top.
Located in a canyon heretofore in
accessible, the construction Of this
dam involved many problems and
taxed the ingenuity of the builders to
the utmost. First a broad highway
was built. For 20 miles this traverses
a trackless desert and then for AZ
miles the road was literally carved
from canyon walls or blasted from the
steep sided mountains. 1t 10 one of
the most remarkable highways in the
world, opening up to the tourist a
country Of unriyaled grandeur and
beauty and making easy of access
some of the best preserved cliff dwell
lings in the southwest.
In prosecuting it's work the govern
ment engaged in many activities. An
immense power plant was installed
near the dam site. A cement mill with
daily capacity of 500 barrels was
built and has turned out 100000 bar
rels at saving of more than $615,00
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-
glreers built mill and made the ce-
ment at half of what 1t 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
population of 1000. 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 1t
was necessary to build wagon roads
from the railroads TO the site and
power canal, 20 miles long, which cost
$3.50, 600. These, with the sawmill. the
refrigerating plant. the water works.
the electric light plant, the machine
shop, the rock crushing plant, the va
rious buildings, cost nearly 100000
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 500 Apache In
dams were employed for several
years as laborers. A telephone line
more than 100 miles long and power
transmission line 10 miles long were
both constructed and have beer in op-
Grafton for some time.
While the big Roosevelt dam has
been the most important single struc
turc in connection with this project.
d vast amount of other engineering
work has been going on at the same
time. Many miles below the big dam
another structure of concrete was
built across the river to turn the
stream flow into two huge canals
which with their laterals have total
length OF more than $50 miles. This
dam is 90 feet in height and 1000 feet
long. The canals will cover 100000
acres of fine land in the valley and by
pumping with electric power an addi-
tional $4,000 acres will be irrigated.
Especial interest attaches to this
project not alone because of the mag