Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1914-01-29
POINTING THE WAY.

POINTING The WAY.
For some years past The courier
his been advocating the Strengthening
of rivers as a. means to prevent hoods
and for the reclamation of lands that
are now subject to overflow Llttie
has been done, but the idea has caught
on however as is shown by the follow
ing from the Sunday Des MONIES
Register and Leader:
This morning the "lower horseshoe
DAM at the head Of the new channel
being excavated below the South East
Ninth street bridge will be cut through
and the Des Moines river Will rush
through the new waterway. One and
one-half miles will be eliminated from
its route to the Mississippi river.
D. M. Albright. contractor, who mas
been operating day and night since
last summer cutting the new chapnel,
has invited the city engineering force
to be present today when the barrier
is to be removed to permit the river
to take it's new course. The work IS
part of the flood protection project:
By excavating through a neck OF land
the "big horseshoe bend" In the river
has been cut off, on the theory that
STRENGTHENING the rivers channel will
permit the water to get away faster
and prevent floods within the CITY u
Des Moines.
With a powerful drag line OUTFIT the
contractor has been constructing
ditch 1000 feet long and % feet deep
in places. Although it was intended
that the channel should be so feet
wide at the base and Ga feet at the top
st has been necessary to make it 100
feet wide at the top owing to the
sandy soil through which the machine
worked. The action Of the current
against this soil is expected soon to
cut away the banks and increase the
width OF the river to at least 300 feet.
Until the new channel Is thoroughly
secured out the old river bed Will not
he blocked off. it is said, The officials
do not anticipate any difficulty IN turn
ing the water into the new ditch, Tor
It is three feet deeper than low water
mark and has much greater fall than
the old channel.
According to contract, Albright is to
be paid for 100000 cubic yards OF
excavation at a rate Of II cents yard.
The total cost of the work will be
$1,000.
The contractor will Immediately
move his outfit to the upper river,
where he will excavate another chan
mel to provide the Raccoon river with
a new outlet into the Des Moines river.
Starting below the south Fifth street
bridge. the new ditch will curve so as
to ioin the Des Moines river above the
Great Western bridge. The city has
purchased all of the land in the new
island to be created and 100 families
have moved their houses and contents
to new locations to give the city a
right Of way for the new work.
With today's event on the lower
river, the flood protection work Is
about one-half completed. There re-
mains to be done only the throwing up
OF levees at several places, a river
wall above Grand avenue and the new
channel at the point of the river.
Des Moines is to be commended for
making the first real beginning on this
great work that confronts the state
Of Iowa, and The Courier congratu-
lates that city on the step 1t has taken.
But The Courier hopes to see the work
eventually taken up on more COM
prehensive basis, by the state in other
words, and made state wide pro-
position as nature has rendered it nee
essary it should be.
On the east Of Iowa is one of the
largest rivers in the world and on the
western border line is another scarce
~ smaller. These two rivers are
great however only because OF the
vast number of other rivers and
streams that empty into them and
Iowa furnishes fair quota Of these
tributaries. AS a matter of fact, there
are so many streams in Iowa that only
a very few Of the states ninety-nine
cOunties-less than dozen-but what
can brag Of watercourse of more or
less consequence. While every one of
these streams contributes to the
fertility and crop producing abilities
Of the state, nevertheless, each one
also exacts its toll Of overflow land.
In many places the streams rise up
and spoil q newly planted crop. In
others the farmers are fearful to plant
lest their crops be drowned out.
Yet no comprehensive effort is be-
ing. made to remedy this condition.
The time will come however, and the
action of Des Moines makes 1t seem
closer, when all over the state there
will be waged a campaign for land
reclamation and flood prevention by
the Strengthening and deepening Of
the waterways.
That straight deep waterways will
carry off storm water without danger
of food is past the stage Of theory.
They will do it, and, the people Of the
state are coming to know 1t.
Under these circumstances it would
seem that the state legislature could
we'll afford to interest itself in a pro-
ject of this kind, in fact it appears to
the casual observer that move in
that direction would be popular-much
more so in fact that proposition call
ing for the expenditure Of 100000
OF the taxpayers money on the extern