The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1911-02-03
5 t. %
ROOSEVELT Dam
IS COMPLETED.
viii be Formally Opened by the tx
President Next Month With
Very Appropriate
Exercises
ENGINEERING MARVEL
Stone and Cement Barrier Across the
Salt River is $50 Feet High
and 1880 Feet
Long.

PHOENIX, Ariz., Feb. S.-The
Roosevelt dam. the stupendous engi-
neering work in connection with the
Salt river irrigation project, is COM
pieted. 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 make the opening a
gala occasion. The event will be at
tended by representatives of the ma
tional government, public officials OF
Arizona and neighboring states and by
many eminent engineers. st
The dam is regarded as one of the
marvels OF modern engineering. To-
Gated in an almost inaccessible can
yon. about seventy miles from the
nearest railroad, its rapid and sue
cessful 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 Flatiron building
in New York. On top its length is
equal to that OF two city blocks, and
provides roadway twenty feet wide
The dam contains $4,000 cubic
yards of masonry. The block OF
stone were blasted from the canyon
walls and the hundreds of thousands
OF barrels of cement used in the con
struction was manufactured by the
government in a mill erected on the
ground.
Behind this imposing structure OF
stone and cement the waters Of the
turbulent stream will form the larg
est 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
capacity of 5G,62S,000 cubic feet
or sufficient water to cover the state
OF Delaware foot deep.
The reservoir will irrigate 24o,. uf
acres of land, and 1t is estimated b,
expert agriculturists that the crops o.
a single season will pay for the entire
| investment of the government, which
has been about s8,54O,000. Not onl,
will the great dam save up the wateI
I for the dried fields. but it will aist
/ light the farmers homes. give then
/ the power for their telephone lines
/ run their mills and factories and ais,
/ operate lines Of railway II desired
All of this will be done through th,
medium of a great power hous
i which the government has erected a
tine base of the dam and which vii
be used to convert the waterfall int,
electricity.
The completion OF the dam is ex
rected to result In the influx of thous
ands of farmers to the valley, an
this in turn will create demand 70
all classes OF labor. The whole pre-
ject is part OF the government
great irrigation service, which, a
some one has said, "is making tn
dry places wet and the wet place
dry" In most wonderful way tn
various irrigation projects in Wyom
ing, Montana, Idaho, Colorado an
other sections Of the west are rapit
ly changing the country from Ian
of sagebrush and cactus to one {
prosperous farms and flourishin
towns.
or all the projects Of the kind yt
undertaken by the government, tn
Roosevelt dam is the largest In poir
OF dimensions. 1t is about twent
FIVE feet higher than the famous Sh
shone dam In northwestern Wyon
| ing. which is the largest structure