The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-06
UNCLE SAM'S OASES-By Fra1k (

l by dams which have created reservoirs
 il the mountains, and some of these dams
 are of enormous extent Take the Sho- l shone, which holds back the waters of I the Shoshone river in northern Wyoming
 on the borders of Yellowstone park. That
 dam is a wedge of solid concrete higher | than the dome of the national capitol at l Washington and it holds back a beauti-
 ful lake. 100 feet deep, covering more 1 than 6000 acres. The dam is S5 feet long | at the bottom and it rise up to dis
 tance of BPS feet between nearly per-
 pendicular cliffs measuring about 200 feet
 wide at the top. It is the highest of all
 masonry dams, and it will reclaim l32, 900
 acres of some of the richest land upon
 earth. Of this 123,000 acres are public
 property, and they will be opened to set
 clement by the Secretary of the Interior
 when the works are completed
 1 Just below this dam is another which diverts the stream into a tunnel over l three miles in length, carrying the waters | into a broad canal and thence out to the farm lands. Thousands of acres of that tract have already been settled. Hundreds of families are established and towns are springing to being.
 The Pathfinder
 Another great dam Is the Pathfinder, named after Gen. John c. Fremont the noted explorer. General Fremont near ly lost his life while attempting to cross in a boat The structure will be 215 feet high, and will store enough water to cover a million acres to the depth of a foot. In connection with the dam and the reservoir. the govern ment has built a canal 95 miles in | length to carry the water on to the lands of Wyoming and Nebraska. This 1 canal is lined for miles with cement, and in places the water is carried over ! 41,1 .1.
 crete. This is in what is known as the North Platte project. It is located
 about 100 miles north of Cheyenne, be- l ing tributary to three different rail-
 roads, About 900 acres of land have already been taken up, and they will
 soon be covered with farms.
 l The Roosevelt Dam
 l The largest dam of all, however is l the Roosevelt dam, the completion of | which was celebrated last spring, and | whose water Is now flowing over | thousands of acres, which. a short time ago, were IS thirsty and dry as the heart of Sahara. This Is situated in
 the Salt River valley in southern Ari-
 zona, not far from hPoenix, in a region
 so arid that it has been nicknamed
 'The Land That God Forgot" Never | theless, 1t was irrigated to some ex-
 tent in ancient times, and the white
 man has irrigated farms there for
 over 40 years. Apache Indians here aided in the government work
 The dam will hold back a million and
 a quarter acre feet of water, and it
 will make 240,000 acres a very Garden i of Eden. The country there is so hot
 that a vast deal of water will be need
 ed to keep the lands moist. As much
 as four feet can be used to advantage
 so that if the water used In a year
 should stay on the land 1t would cover | 1t to the height of ones chest
 In the Yuma project which is still far
 ther south, at the junction of the Gila
 and Colorado rivers, the climate is still hotter, and the land can drink up 5lh feet | of water per annum. so much that if left, 1t would drown out all the girls un
 der five feet six who will soon be living upon it.
 l The Roosevelt dam is made of sand : stone and cement. It is as high as any office building of twenty-one stories. and | it's length at the top Is equal to two city l blocks. Tt is in fact, over 1000 feet long
 It is ITO feet thick at the bottom, and over a third of million barrels of ce- ment were used in it's construction This was made by the government at works