Arizona republican., 1914-07-09
 COMPLETE F0R
 VERDE WORK
Survey Party to Work Ov- CT Horseshoe Damsite to Leave for Scene of I'm portant Operations on Friday Morning.

Working like beavers, since the authorization of a survey of the Verde damsite by the board of gov
 ernors, the engineers of the Salt River Valley Water Users AssOcia-
 ton yesterday succeeded in complet- ing preparations for their work A survey party of between five and ten men will leave Phoenix by team Fri day morning, bound for the scene of the future great stora~e reservoir fifty-five miles up the Verde river. W. E. Elliott, chief engineer for the association is in charge of the survey
 work He has brought together eX- peIts in mountain work, and has out lined series of surveys to be made within the ttirty-acre tract on which
 the dam will be situated.
 Along with the preliminary survey, goes the still more important work of boring The boring outfit that B. F. Jones used in Investigating the San Carlos dam5ite is now in Saca ton in the Indian service. It has been secured for this work Jones, who is now in Los Angeles will come over as soon as the location and re- connaissance surveys are made, and will bring with him those diamond points that are now resting so safely in the U. s. R. s. vaults Then will start the second part of the great
 work. Bed rock must be located, its depth determined, and it's condition. Nnl- | is discovered beneath the dam site. no dam can be built. It is a big question, but Engineer Elliott has
 studied it a great deal. He says: The Verde damste is rather an unknown quantity until we determine the position and character of the un- deriving basic strata. But we have every confidence in the existence of strong red granite below that pe- culiar igneous or volcanic rock. There
 is one layer of porous sandstone be- meath the molten rock, but that is
 only eight inches thick. We know there is a red granite substructure, and we are strongly inclined to be-
 lieve that the gray granite basic rock, still below the red is not so far down as to make it impossible to found the , dam on it.
 Tt will be a spillway type of dam 1 Northwest of the site of the dam is row of low hills, running from the shoulder through which the Verde Valley Water Company's tunnel is dug. Along the top of these hills, for twenty v-six hundred feet will run the
 spillway. The dam will be a straight
 one, if our present plans are backed Iup by favorable discoveries below ground. It will sit at a close angle with the east and west line. Buttress like hills on either side give gooc Iplaces to build upon, and the contoul
 of the back hills is also favorable
 President John P. Orme and Engineer
 Elliott will probably make one more
 trip to the damsite before the survey
 party gets away. They will take ar
 auto and make the trip from thi: lside.
 | The survey itself will be a carefu
 one. Five foot contour lines will b' mapped out on that thirty-acre tract
 and if necessary, still closer ones vii
 be drawn No attempt will be mad
 to survey a potential high water mari
 around the reservoir limits until tn
 borings are made. And before tn diamond drills can be set to worl, the survey must be finished So tn work will be hurried through as fas , as is consistent with thoroughness It will take about ten days to finish il