Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1916-1918, 1916-10-27

Engle, New Mexico. Oct. 24.-Uncle
Sam formally announces the compile
ton of the biggest reservoir in the
world-a lake forty miles long dam
med back by structure that makes
the pyramids of Egypt look inenec-
tual and amateurish. Lava canyons
that have been dry since the seventh
day of creation are drowned under
sixty feet of cool green water. Little
villages thirty miles from the scene
of operations, villages that have been
getting their water in barrels, are Sc
riously considering whether they
ought 70 invest in row boats. An
old deserted fort. up side canyon
that was long synonym for utter
dryncss has become fine place 10
fish.
All these changes. and few score
of others much more important econ
omicslly, have been brought about by
the building of the Elephant Butte
dam twelve miles from here. The rec
lamation service has been laboring
away at the monster for five years.
undisturbed by war strikes or poll
tics The service built railroad and
city as incidental details tof con-
struction. Now the work is done:
most of the city has been torn down
and hauled away; the railroad will
soon travel the same path. The dam
remains and will remain for the next
few hundred years.
The more familiar you are with this
part OF the country. the more unbe-
lievable seems the feat that has been
accomplished. From the Black range
to the westward to the barren spurs
of the White mountains to the east,
lies one Of the driest stretches of the
southwest. 1t is land of yucca. cac-
tus and greasewood. OF shallow. mud
dy water holes trampled into brown
soup by the hoofs of eager cattle,
land of rattlesnakes, prairie dogs and
cawing crows. The old Mexican
name for the eastern miles of the val
ley is La tornado del Muerto-the
Journey of death. Now scores OF the
lava hills are turned into islands. long
arms of the new sea wind back like
the flords of Norway in what were
once barren gullies, and you could
sail a steamer where cattle died OF
thirst
The country hereabouts is chiefly
made up of rolling stony hills TWO OF
three hundred feet high, intersected
by steep gullies. On this account tire
lake created by the new dam is not
a single sheet Of water as most arti-
fetal lakes are, but winding thing
of crooked narrow arms reaching up
between the hills like great green
come parts of big reservoir. ana
where the plainsman at this season
would expect to find only sun baked
gulch between two hill crests there is
forty feet Of water. Indeed. an ola
timer who glimpsed one OF these new
desert fiords as he crossed the valley
would surely take it for mirage and
never turn aside to investigate.
The huge gray dam itself is dwarfed
by the gray hills around it, Cunning
Nv placed so that its presence backs
M the river waters and floods the
CANYONS for score of miles above. II
seems nevertheless like nothing but
a spur Of the hills on either side.
flung across the narrow valley pe-
tween. You have to stand on its crest
to appreciate the size OF ii. Shaped
like wedge with the narrow edge
uppermost and the broad base buried
beneath the waters and the sands or
the river bed reaching deep into bed
rock below. there Is easily room lot
two automobiles to pass between tne
two six foot parapets on the roadway
that forms the top. From one END 10
the other it is pleasant five minutes
walk, with view ~ the northward
that would startle the origina! inhap-
itants OF New Mexico.
On the upstream side the gauges
show today little more than nun
dred feet of water. This upstream
side of the masonry is perpendicular.
dropping sheer another hundred feet
or so to water level The lake is
long way from being filed yet. and IT
will take the Rio Grande several years
vet to complete it's share of the con-
tract. The waters are of a clear green.
contrary to the habit of southwestern
rivers. which are usually a rich chloe
olate, The heavy sediment brought
down from above is deposited by the
waters in standing: eventually the
DISPOSITION of this sediment VIII De
another problem for the government
en- gineers to solve. The result, how
ever. is al lake almost as clear as a
tropic ocean; from the heiGh, OF the
dam crest YOU can see schools OF
, great carp and catfish. some OF them
two feet long, swimming about lazliy
twenty feet below the surface. lhelr
size is something o. mystery 1or
the catfish native to the river is a moo
est Individual rarely larger than SIX
mr. eight inches. and no fish have been
introduced. Evidently the natives
have thriven in their new quarters.