The Parker post., 1914-04-11
NEW $S,OOO,OOO
CONCRETE DAM
NEW MEXICO SOON TO HAVE BIG
GEST DAM IN THE UNITED STA
TES-SURPASSED BY BUT ONE
DAM IN THE WORLD.

Have you heard about the biggest
Reclamation Service?
1t is located in New Mexico.
It's estimated cost will be $4,000
900.
1t will rise 300 feet above low wa
ter mark.
It's bottom thickness will be 1870
feet.
It's total length, along the bottom
will be 250 feet.
It's total length, along the top, will
be 1900 feet.
It will rest upon the solid rock 50
feet below the bed of the river.
1t will pond 2,642,292 acre-feet of
water, each acre-foot being enough
water to fill space of one foot
deep over one acre of surface
1t will form an artificial lake 45
miles long, covering an area of 4O,O0o
acres and constituting the largest ar
tificial lake of the kind on the globe,
1t will be surpassed in it's dimen-
sions by but one similar dam in the
world, and that is the great concrete
dam built by the British at Assouan
in Egypt.
1t will water, eventually, strll
ranging from one to seven miles In
width and extending more than 10
miles down the Rio Grande. 1t will
reclaim and make to blossom as tn
rose no less than 100000 acres OF
land.
But the wonders of the project can
be but family CLEANED from the
statements made. For it is part
of the gov ernment's plan that the
users of the water made available
for irrigation purposes by the big
dam shall eventually own the dam
itself, in fee simple.
This mighty project is known as
the Elephant Butte dam. The organ
ization which is making it available
to Mr.. Common People and his fam
lily is known as the Elephant Butte
Water Users association. In their
work, they are only bringing once
more to pass, this time in a much
more scientific and magnificent way,
however, what the ancient Pueblo In
dians had effected unknown centuri-
es ago before the first white man ev-
er set foot in this section, nearly
400 years ago For when the first
whites entered New Mexico in the
year 1886 they found the Indians cul-
tivating fertile fields of chill and corn
which they watered by means Of dit
ches and laterals conveying the wa
ters of the Rio Grande to their crOps:l
and singular as it may appear, the
same levels along which the ancient
Pueblos laid their bitches are those
which the modern engineers are prov
ing to be best adapted to the pur-
pose. How did those ancient and
almost barbarous people arrive. at
the knowledge of these things?
1t is a singular and striking in
stance of the abatement of the valu-
able customs that after the advent
of the more highly civilized race the
advancement which the Indians had
achieved in agricultural matters was
gradually lost. Acre by acre the fer
tile valleys which their rude system
OF irrigation had made green and fer
tile were abandoned to the sway
of the surrounding country. bitches
and laterals checked and filled. Gao
tus replaced corn. The horned toad
abounded where song birds had be-
fore sought their food. Desolation re-
placed prosperity. Savagery in its
widest aspect swallowed up the civ
ilization of the Pueblos and out of
the desert swept a bosom of sand to
made
1t was a picturesque civilization
which those old Pueblos enjoyed.
Their garments were woven of Yucca
fibre, of cotton and the down of the
cottonwood tree, of native grasses
and buckskin. Bright cOlors abound
ed. The head-dresses of the officials
were aflame with the brilliant plumes
OF the macaw. Bright dyes stained
the tunics worn by the younger wo-
men and even their footwear bore
barbaric evidence of this love for col
or. Their dress, as a whole, was
simply fashioned, sanitary and COM
Portable.
They were a race of wOrshippers,
and none among them were so high
ly honored or implicitly obeyed as
l. .ckz. TTN1.