The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1911-02-02
american News Service)

tAmeflcan news SerVlCeD
Phoenix, Ariz.. Feb. 1.-The Roose-
welt dam, the stupendous engineering
work in connection with the Salt river
irrigation project, is completed and
will be formally opened next month
by former President Roosevelt, in
honor of whom the dam was named.
Preparations already are under way to
The event will be attended by repre-
sentatives of the national government,
public officials of Arizona and neigh
boring states and by many eminent en-
gineers.
The dam is regarded as one of the
marvels of modern engineering. Lo-
Gated in an almost inaccessible can
yon. about seventy miles northwest
of this city and sixty miles from the
nearest railroad. its rapid and success
full construction has been watched
with interest by engineers all over
the world.
At the point where the dam crosses
the Salt river the stream runs through
a narrow gorge, across which the huge
barrier of stone and cement stretches
to length of 1880 feet. The dam
is $50 feet high, or about the height
of the F1atiron building in New York.
On top it's length is equal to that of
two city blocks, and provides road
way twenty feet wide. The dam con-
tains 1866 cubic yards of masonry.
The blocks of stone were blasted from
the canyon walls and the hundreds of
thousands of barrels of cement used in
the construction was manufactured by
the government in a mill erected on
the ground.
Great Artificial Lake.
Behind this imposing structure of
stone and cement the waters of the
turbulent stream will form the largest
artificial lake in the world. The great
reservoir will be twenty-five miles
long and more than 220 feet deep
against the dam. 1t will have capaci-
ty of 5G.62s 200, 900 cubic feet or suf-
! ficient water to cover the state of
Delaware foot deep.
| The reservoir will irrigate 100000
acres of land and it is estimated by
expert agriculturists that the crops OF
| investment of the government,
which has been about $S,540,000. Not
only will the great dam save up the
/ water for the dried fields, but it will
also light the farmers homes. give
them the power for their telephone
lines, run their mills and factories and
also operate lines of railway if desired.
All of this will be done through the
medium of a great power-house which
the government has erected at the
| base of the dam, and which will be
used to convert the waterfall into
electricity.
The completion of the dam is expect
ed to result in the influx of thousands
of farmers to the valley and this in
turn will create a demand for all class
es of labor. The whole project is a
part of the government great irri-
CATION service, which, as some has
said, lis making the dry places wet
and the wet places dry" In most
wonderful way the various irrigation
projects in Wyoming, Montana, Ida
no, Colorado and other sections of the
West are rapidly changing the coun'
try from a land of sagebrush and cac.
tus to one of. prosperous farms and
| flourishing towns.
OF all the projects of the kind yet
| undertaken by the government the
Roosevelt dam is the largest in point
of dimensions. 1t is about p feet
higher than the famous Shoshone dam
| in northwest Woming, which is the
largest structure of its kind complet
ed up to the present time. The ma
tural difficulties presented in the con
struction of the Shoshone dam were
however. much greater than in the
Roosevelt project.
For Rent room flat with bath