Arizona republican., 1912-10-06
Dam Party Is ShH Held By
 Heavy Rains

ROOSEVELT, Oct 5.-The rainfall | at the Roosevelt dam today and last night has been such as to preclude the possibility of a start from here on the return trip to Phoenix until tomorrow
 morning and possibly not then. The i absence of a requisite number of skid chains to equip every automobile prop erly, and the fact that several of the creeks between here and Fish Creek
 are running very high with water made | it impossible for the geographers to leave for Phoenix
 From what could be gathered this evening. after a night and most of another day of heavy rain. the worst offender in the high creek business is Pine Creek half way between Roose- welt and Fish. The water is so deep | in the creek now that it would flow | easily over the tops of the automobiles were they driven down into it. It was not however only on this account that 1 Engineer H. c. Reed, of the reclama- l tiOn service who has charge of the l road between here and Phoenix re- | fused to allow the party to think of re- | turning. The condition of the roads l between here and Phoenix considering 1 what grief was encountered coming up 1 and the fact that there are a number | of sharp turns on the road at the l grades around the upper edgs of the bluffs which are dangerous to nego- tiate in wet weather had as much to 1 do with the action of the engineer as l anything
 1 MT. Reed woke the party up this morning early to tell them they would
 not be able to return, and a telegram i was sent to the railway officials in Phoenix telling them of the decision and the situation. instructions were i dy to leave at once as soon as the ge- l ographers get to Phoenix.
 1 It may be possible to start home in | the morning, but from the looks of the | thing now, the morning will bring no relief. The country is perfectly sog- l gy with water, the trees are heavy l with moisture and over all seems to l hang instead of the spirit of eternal l spring such as had been expected the 1 veritable spirit of winter.
 1 When however it was found that it l would be impossible to return this l morning. the visitors cheered up by l the inimitable Harry Welch who has | story for every contingency, began to | enjoy the day. Several gatherings l were had in the mess hall, where in
 addition to scientific and geographical l subjects "reminiscences were given. | Welch assured the visitors that not in l the memory of the oldest inhabItant
 had the weather been etc, joke which
 some of the visitors caught and some l of them did not
 l It is a jolly crowd however. Engin
 eers Reed and Fitch are doing all in the l power to keep the spirits of the guests | up, and to extend to them every poss- l ible courtesy. Tn spite of the rain and
 the chances of staying here they seem
 to be enjoying every minute of it. Sev-
 eral times during the day trips have
 been taken out to the dam proper and
 to the power house, and the interesting
 facts explained to the guests.
 Governor Hunt accompanied by the
 newspaper men left this afternoon for |, l NTlOD6 where they Will ldfAS U cllAA AOA Phoenix. They expect to arrive be-
 fore the autoists get back to the capi-
 tai city.
 | Numbers of Phoenix people tele- phoned to the reclamation office here
 today to find out if all was we'll The
 falling rain interfered with the tele-
 phone conversations so it is supposed
 they got but very little satisfaction.
 The local arrangements for the
 further entertainment of the members
 and guests of the American Geo l graphical society were all called off
 yesterday morning as soon as it was
 found that it would be hardly possl- , ble for the visitors to return in time.
 A great deal of disappointment was , manifested among the local enter tainers as they had looked forward
 with considerable pleasure to the op- . portunity of showing the distinguish
 ed guests some real Phoenix hospl-
 tality
 During the day the office of the
 Republican was besieged with tele-
 phone calls from subscribers and
 friends for information as to the
 safety of the party. It was known
 that The Republican had man with
 the party and that the paper would T be glad to give any news possible or . the detained travellers.
 In the morning soon after the de- cision was reached at Roosevelt not to return. The Republican correspond , ent telephoned the information into
 the office, and later. during the eve
 ming he again got into communlca- =
 tion with the local office and gave
 the news of the expedition.
 The special train, which brought
 the visitors here. has been ready and Il waiting for the load of human freight \ It will be kept in readiness for the II arrival of the party and they will be y taken direct to the train and sent
 lupon their way with "Godspeed.