Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-11-03

|
down from above is deposited by the
waters in standing: eventually the dis
position of this sediment will be an
other problem for the government en-
| gineers to solve.
| The result, however is n lake almost
as clear as tropic ocean; from the
| height OF the dam-crest you can see
schools Of great carp and catfish, some
OF them two feet long, swimming about
lazfly twenty feet below the surface.
Their size is something of a mystery.
for the catfish native to the river is
! modest individual rarely larger than
been introduced. Evidently the natives
! have thriven in their new quarters.
! x
1t is not possible to form an adequate
| idea Of the dimensions of this man
| made oce II
Elephant Butte Now from any one
an Island in Lake. POM, MT oe &c us
| imprisoned water is backed up in in
| visible side canyons. From the dam it.
self you can hardly tell which way the
| course Of the river lies. From the east,
the west and the north stretch the
deep. narrow arms Of water where the
rising river has filed the tributary
valleys as well as the main river bed.
Elephant Butte. sheer pile of brown
| lava In whose outlines the lively imagi-
| nation can trace some faint reseIn-
blance to an elephants head, has been
| turned into an island by the rising
mood. Other isolated hills and hil1ockS,
| some of them miles above the dam, can
pc seen family in the clear air as
though floating in the water that sur
rounds them. Far across the dry NAL
pals as the Mexicans call these bad
lands you can see the site of old Fort
Mckay, which an invisible arm of the
| reservoir has turned into a fishing
| ground. And for many miles that you
cannot see at all you know that the
same green tide has entered and food
ed the canyons, here spreading out into
a broad lake. there breaking up into
winding arms. with the crests Of the
ridges left as peninsulas and islands.
The flooding and filling part of the
program Is far from being completely
carried out. 1t will take several years
| before the lake has attained it's full
| magnitude. A mile from the main con-
crete dam there Is a lesser dam built of
earth and stone. 1t can stand for
very respectable piece of engineering
enough for an auto road, and it slopes
nifty or sixty yards downward to it's
base-a slope that is faced smoothly
as table with broken stone we'll
beaten down. This dam blocks per
fectly dry side canyon. There is not
even any water in sight from its crest
today. But when the big lake is full
| the side canyon will tie flooded, and
the water will have risen within TWEEN
ty yards OF the crest of this secondary
dam.
The main dam looks like solid
of fact it is riddIed with galleries and
passages. You can climb down a shaft
and explore its entrails. and here for
the first time you appreciate the enor-
! nous size of this man-built thing.
Endless passages stretch before you,
iron ladders lead upward and down
ward to other levels and similar pas
sages A sloping flight of narrow con-
crete steps dips downward for thirty
feet. strikes a ten-foot level landing.
| then dips downward again. This proc
ess is repeated over and over, until you
begin to think that the stairs will go
on to China. AS you go deeper the
| walls become damp. and you are con-
scious of a change in the air pressure
like that in the railway tunnels under
little chambers followed out. where
tstand polished valves and gauges, wink
ing in the electric lights. AT the bot
tom you are hundred feet or so be-
northward. All that stands between
you and the pressure of half a billion
gallons of penned water is a bit of
shrewdly calculated concrete masonry.
The whole structure is family but in
cessantIy shaken by a fine vibration.
due to the rush
Constant Vibrations of what water is
Shake Great Dam. isrn..a ..et 49,, ~ nv"
stocks to the turbine power plant. You
can feel the vibration by laying hand
on the damp wall. 1t is comforting
to reflect that the strain on the dam
has been carefully calculated by men
| who know their business.
On the downstream side, at the base
a passage leads outward to a little
power house perched on the side of the
concrete mountain. whose wall and roof
are continually damp with spray flung
up forty feet by the waters that rush
f, through the turbine. Here a fraction
| of the available power is utilized for
| local needs. Six great round passages.
each large enough for man to walk
/ upright, pierce the dam by the power
house. They are dry today. but even
| tually the waters released through
| them will furnish electric power to the
water users for hundreds Of miles be-
| low, perhaps to the city Of Ell Paso it.
self.
| 1t is just as difficult to visualize the
change that the dam will work below
| it's site as 1t is to visualize the long
| lake that will eventually reach for
| forty-five miles above. The whole flow
| of the Rio Grande will be controlled
| from here, and the floods that storm
| down in the spring will be held and
released as needed in the dry summer.
Far down the valley. even into Texas.
| for a distance of more than hundred
miles, the face of the land will be
Transformed The formal dedication
marked the completion of one of Uncle
Sans biggest jobs.