Weekly journal-miner., 1915-04-21
HISTORY OF PROJECTS

A1S 1ORH OF PROJECIS
 PHOENIX, April 15.-The Lyman dam and reservoir are located on the Little Colorado river 12 miles above St. Johns and 24 miles north of Springerville. The river at this part of its course runs almost due north.
 The reservoir made a lake approxi- mately four miles long and mile wide, containing something more than 10000 acre feet of water. The dam was built of earth and rock in an q" shape 700 feet on one wing and 800 on the other. It rose to a height of 52 feet from bedrock and was built in 1913 under the supervision of Vim cent P. Odoni.
 The filing states that the purpose of the dam is to conserve "the flood and unappropriated waters of the Lit tie Colorado river" The stored waters were estimated by the en- gineers to be capable of supplying irrigation to 5000 acres of land lying north of the dam.
 The canal system comprises about twenty miles and was highly expen- sive owing to the great amount of rock cutting that was necessary to bring the water from the reservoir to the lower levels. Just below the dam there is solid rock excavation of more than three miles in length and at another point a rock cut 1000 feet long and 24 feet deep was re- quired.
 The dam was built and the canals dug by cooperative effort among the settlers and there was no bond issue or other indebtedness. It is stated l by men familiar with local conditions | along the Little Colorado that there can be no doubt that the dam went | out under the pressure of the un usually heavy floods that have been coming down the river in the last few days. It is also said that an inspec tion of the dam was made a few months ago by party of eastern en- gineers, who were at the time in vestigating another project on the river, and that they advised its early strengthening.
 Lyman reservoir dam held back a tremendous big lake or body of water" said Paul Geary, member of the Arizona corporation commission, today, who formerly resided in that part of the state. "It was the biggest reservoir for irrigation purposes in the northern part of the state.
 "It was an earth dam. I don't know whether it had core, but I believe 1t did not.
 "The dam was made by piling dirt 50 or 50 feet high and it may have been undermined by gophers.
 "The dam held back the water that irrigated all the mesa and lands around St. Johns. The building of the dam was financed jointly by Den yer capitalists and citizens of St Johns. It irrigated land that was des- tined to be a great fruit country.
 "The breaking of the Lyman dam means that both the Meadows and Hunt dams will give way. The Mead ows is just three miles below St. Johns and the Hunt 20 miles below.
 "The last high water of any conse- ouence was in 1905, when the Salado dam, about two miles below the site of the Lyman, broke.
 "The Little Colorado is ordinarily a stream 50 feet wide, but when it rises it is two miles wide in some places.
 Following the breaking of the Sal ado dam in 1905, the Santa Fe Rail- road Company anchored locomotives to bridges over the river at Holbrook GA miles from St. Johns, and at Win slow, B miles west of Holbrook, to prevent them from being washed away.
 "The Salado dam was about two miles from the site of the Lyman. The Lyman was built after the Salado washed out"