The Holbrook news., 1911-05-19


 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- gation 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 61.OOO. .OOO.O gallons of water. This quantity of water, in irrigation terms. is 1,3O0.00O acre-feet, or enough to cover 1,300.000 acres with one foot of water. There are about 240,000 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, Across this gorge the Roosevelt dam was built, a wedge-shaped wall of masonry 2S4 feet high, 168 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 42 miles the road was literally carved from canyon walls or blasted from the steep sided mountains. It is one of the most remarkable highways in the world, opening up to the tourist a country of unrivaled grandeur and beauty and making easy of access some of the best preserved cliff dwell lings in the southwest
 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 340,00O bar rels at a saving of more than $615. .00O. The dam contains 340,000 cubic yards of masonry and 4,O00,0OO barrels of cement. To have bought this cement and had 1t 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 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 a population of 5000, it's sole support being the $9,o0O,000 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 1t 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 a power canal, 20 miles long, which cost ] $79o,00O These, with the sawmill, the | plant, the water works, | the electric light plant, the machine | shop. the rock crushing plant. the va rious buildings, cost nearly $2,000,000 | 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 500 Apache h. dians were employed for several years as laborers. A telephone line more than 100 miles long and power line 75 miles long were both constructed and have been in op- sration for some time.
 While the big Roosevelt dam has been the most important single struc-