The Aberdeen weekly. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1878-1933, 1911-03-31

IA nix. ArfZ.. which was recently
put into service with 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 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 1000. 900. 900
gallons Of water. This quantity of
water. in irrigation terms, is 100000
acre-feet. or enough 10 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 viii be water in plenty and to
spare
About seventy miles northeast of
Phoenix. Arlz.. the Salt River runs,
through a deep and narrow gorge.
Across this gorge the Roosevelt dam
was built. a wedge-shaped wall of
masonry 2S4 feet high, los feet thick
and 200 feet wide at the base. 20 feet
thick and 1000 feet wide at the top.
Located in 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 Is one of
the most remarkable highways in the
world, opening up to the tourist
country of unrivaled grandeur and
beauty and making easy of access
some of the best preserved cliff dwell
Iings 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
q daily capacity of 500 barrels was
built and has turned out $40, 600 bar
rels at n saving of more than S615. 900.
The dam contains 340.0 900 cubic yards
of masonry and 100000 barrels of
cement To have bought this cement
and had il shipped by rail to the near
est railroad point and hauled by
wagon to the dam site would have
greatly IDtIGdStd iAit COSt, ~ Tic eli
gineers built a mill and made the ce-
ment at half of what it 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 100000 the government
was spending 10 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 wild. isolated spot among
rugged mountains and first of all it
was necessary 10 build wagon roads
from the railroads TO the site and a
power canal. 90 miles long, which cost
$4,000 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 GOO Apache In
dams were employed for several
wears as laborers. A telephone line
more than 100 miles long and a power
transmission line 70 miles long were
both constructed and have been in op-
Grafton for some time
While the. big Roosevelt dam has
been the most important single struc
ture in connection with this project,
a 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