The Richfield recorder. (Richfield, Idaho) 1909-1931, 1915-09-17

COMPLETEip
Big Celebration Planned
For Next Week

BOISE, Idaho, Sept. 14.-If the con-
crete in the Arrowrock dam, the high
est in the world located 20 miles above
this city, which will be officially ded-
icated October 4 with appropriate SER
vices here, were placed in the average
block in most any city in the United
States, it would stand flush with the
four streets around it, as high as a
5-story edifice; if it were put into a
column 10 feet square. it would stand
29 miles high. No bigger job Of con
attempted before in this country. To
day this dam stands completed, tri-
| butte to the Reclamation Service anu
engineering and constructing ability
of F. E. Weymouth, supervising engi-
neer Of the Idaho district; Charles H.
Paul, construction engineer and James
Mum, superintendent of construction.
| If this masterpiece in concrete
could be weighed it would tip the beam
| at over a million tons. Today it is
wedged and anchored in arch shape
with radius Of curvation at 662 feet
100 feet long between sheer noun
tains towering mile high It's total
height Is 1885 feet, 81 feet of which
is below the Boise river bed across
which 1t has been constructed. 1t rests
on base 240 feet wide which repre-
sents Its thickness where it is con-
creted to granite. At the top 1t is 16
feet wide, crested with a concrete road
way guarded on either side by para
pet wall four feet high crowning which
are arc light pedestals the entire sweep
Of the curve The sides are also an
chored to granite cliffs. Inside of it
are spacious inspection galleries run
ming its full length at various levels.
the lowest 230 feet below normal high
water surface. In these galleries Is
the mechanism that operates the 20
outlets controlling the impounded wat
or. Today two of these four feet and
four inches in diameter control the
total flow Of the river. There are more
steps inside the apparently solid dam
than are found in most hostelries
They. too, are made of concrete.
One side Of this mighty dam con-
tains q concrete deck over which logs
floated down the reservoir can be
snaked across and shot into a concrete
chute. through tunnel and droppad
so feet Into the river below. There are
three billion feet OF merchantable tim
Der valued at thirty six million dollars
tributary to this reservoir and 1t Is es-
timated 1t will take fifty years to float
and shoot it over the dam. On the op
posite side Is a concrete coated spill
way cut out OF solid granite to take
has a capacity of 10000 second feet.
The crest Is 400 feet long and the water
rushing over It, drops into trench 10
feet deep and is carried a distance of
500 feet around the dam cascading
down the mountain side into the river
below. For extreme flood waters the
dam Is 80 built as to allow flow of
four feet In depth to rush over 1t
without damage to the structure.
Turningd' constantly. mixing and
kneading their two-to charge Of con-
crete, double cone mixers churned for
four years 70 mix enough concrete to
I'LL the excavation for the dam and
raise 1t to it's present towering height.
A total of seven hundred thousand
cubic yards OF rock and dirt was ex-
cavated for both dam and spillway and
six hundred cubic yards of concrete
were dumped into the dam. Where ii
was possible great boulders were used
in the construction. A mountain side of
gravel was moved, screened and dump
ed into gravel trains and carried 13
miles to the mixers. These dumped
with the regularity of clock. Elec-
trio cars then rushed the concrete in
to tunnel to the distributing tower.
Galloway buckets sailed through the
air between the tower and hopper. 1t
was then distributed from the hopper
by chute to various points on the dam.
In less than three minutes from the
time gravel left its bin at the mix
H.