Cheraw chronicle. [volume] (Cheraw, S.C.) 1896-2005, 1916-09-07

and restaurants make FL PaS0 faV'
arite city for progressive Americans
Nearly half Of the population Of El
Paso is eMxican. Thee are less than
1000 negroes. A great many Mexican
refugees are residing in Ell Paso and
it is hotbed for Mexican politics.
The most notable feature Of the val.
leys Of the upper Rio Grande in New
Mexico and Texas is the great Ele.
phant Butte Dam. 1t is said to be the
biggest structure Of its kind ever
undertaken by the United States re-
clamation bureau. 1t probes 10O0.6
feet below the river bed, and grips the
solid bedrock with a base rs
thick. 1t is to rise 304.5 tset sheer,
tapering to a width of 16 feet and
carrying a permanent roadway from
wall to wall Of the Rio Grande can
yon. 1t is to be 1,254 feet long on
top. 1t will contain when finished
$4,000 cubic yards of masonry.
1t will form lake in the canyon
above it that will submerge 10000
acres Of land-a lake with 200 miles of
shore line and an average depth of
66 feet. This lake will be, it is stated,
the largest artificial body of water on
the globe. 1t will contain more than
twice as much water as can be stored
in the Roosevelt dam and fifty per cent
more than is stored by the Assousan
dam in Egypt.
This lake will contain S62, ,200, ,000, 900
gallons of water-enough to spread
more than two feet deep over the
whole State of Delaware. 1t will re-
Claim $4,000 acres Of the most fertile
land on the face Of the earth. OF this
land $4,000 acres lie within the Unit
ted States in New Mexico and Texas
and 25,OOO acres in old Mexico. Plans
are on foot to transform the country
surrounding the dam into great
pleasure resort.
Making Canals and Dams.
The reclamation bureau is now
spending 100000 a month in digging
canals and building diversion dams in
the Mesilla and Ell Paso valleys. In
this work more than 1000 men are
engaged. There is already built one
big diversion dam, Of concrete con-
struction, at Leasburg, at the upper
end of the Mesilla valley, and another
at Ell Paso. The bureau is utilizing
the channel of the river as the main
canal Of the system, building these
diversion dams across 1t at intervals
and tapping it with canals just above
the dam.
The Mesilla valley ends just above
FL Paso. There the means again draw
close to the channel of the Rio Grande
and heap up into, the mountain, form
ing "the pass" and making it the site
of the most active and progressive
city of Ell Paso. Three miles below E1
Paso the mesas recede and the 81 Pasc
valley widens out, $4,000 acres on the
.Americar side and 25,000 on the Mexi
lean side.
With the delightful climate and the
dry atmosphere this is great health
country. And crops of many kinds
grow In the irrigated sections. AL
falfa is one Of the most abundant
five cuttings a year, yielding from one
to two tons each ARE obtained. Gar
den trucks, berries, peaches, apples
pears, corn and grapes abound. olive
stock of all kinds flourishes. It /!
estimated that 10000 hose power O
electrical energy can be delivered ii
FL Paso alone from the dam.
This is a wonderful country ant
much more delightful and prosperou
than the average South Carolinial
imagines.
!, The Chronicla-S1 mar yoar.