The Churchill county standard. (Fallon, Nev.) 1908-1920, 1916-06-28
ONE HUNDRED FEET OF
EMBANKMENT WASHED OUT
First Break in Big Ditch In IL
Years Operation--Farmers Re-
spond Promptly to Call
For Assistance.
Eighty Animals and Forty sien Tn
der T.. r. Gibbs Have Water
Flowing After As Honr5'
Labor.

TIE first serious break in th'
rruckoe-Carson main canal since II.
construction twelve years ago, oo
.urred last Thursday morning be
tween / and O'Clock. The breaf
vas at a point about three and q
half miles west of Hazen. About
1925 feet of the embankment was
caved and washed away, leaving q
gorge about forty feet in width and
from eighteen to twenty-five feet in
depth in the sandy loan as the water
tore its way down the hill toward
Tho fats TO tie north.
Before the water could be turned
off at the Derby diversion dam and
the canal drained at the Gilpin spill
way, the tremendous volume OF wat
er impounded in the big ditch, which
at this point was GO feet vide at the
top, Is feet wide at the bottom and
is feet deep, had swept down to the
north, and completely tore out
about GO feet of the track and un-
dermined the roadbed for a consid-
cradle distance on either side of the
main channel it had made for itself.
At the time of the catastrophe there
was about $50 second feet of water
flowing in the slow moving stream.
The result when the immense guam
tity of water stored in upwards OF
twenty miles tore its way down the
hill through the orifice can better
be imagined than described.
The canal had been inspected for
its entire length on the Tuesday af-
ternoon previous and gave ne out
ward evidence of weakness at any
point.
As soon as word was received
mere at O'Clock in the morning
steps were taken by Project Mana
ger F. G. Hough TO set about ths
work of repairs and daylight fount
a large force of men and teams with
in a radius of ten miles of thu
break moving toward the scene witt
scrapers to begin the worl
of repair.
Immediate and effective opera
tions were considerably hampered
at the outset by the amount of flow
still in the canal, the nearest spill
way being at Gilpin, twelve miles
distant, but by afternoon the work
of reconstruction was under way un-
der the direction of F. E. Gibbs, su-
perintendent of maintenance for the
Reclamation service, assisted by q
force of 40 men and so animals.
Meanwhile the Southern Paeific's
wreeking crew we're on the spot
from Sparks, and Notwithstanding
the extent of the washout. the COM
pany had trains running over the
temporary tracks at 1915 Thursday
morning or four hours after theiI
arrival on the seene-demonstrat-
ing the wonderful efficiently of the
companys organization.
The Lincoln Highway passes di-
rectly under the bank of the canal
at the scene of the break and the
extent of the damage to the road
was such that all automobiles were
detoured around by way of Fort
Churchill and Lahontan until Friday
afternoon, when the highway was
sufficiently repaired to permit of the
passage of autos with the assistance
of the workers,
Water was again turned into the
canal on Saturday morning, forty
eight hours after the break, a feat
that can scarcely be credited by
those who saw the extent of the
damage and the vast quantity OF
material (about 5000 Gu. ft.) re-
ouired to close the gap in the canal
and fill in the roadbed below
Thursday morning yawning chasm
forty feet in width and from Is to
25 feet in depth cut cash across
the Highway By Friday afternoon
machines were passing the break
and the banks of the canal had again
taken on definite shape, which
speaks volumes for the efficiency OF
the Reclamation service and the 10y
atty and willingness of the farmers
to drop their harvest labors and
lend their assistance in time of need.
The cause of the break has not
been definitely determined. but was
probably due to the work of musk
rats undermining the banks. The
theory that it was caused by water
pressure is untenable for the reason
that the canal was not running to
within two feet of high water mark
and at the time was being operated
at only about one half capacity and
the further fact that at this point