The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1919-03-25

approved by the most eminent civil, hydraulic electrical engineer III
America All readers of newspapers must by this time be more or less
destruction is wrought in the United States almost every year by floods
Equal destruction is wrought if in a less apparent and a quieerw way, by
erosion due to the free sweep of watero over and from the countrys great
watersheds. Billions of tons O silt are carried to the great CULTS, into the
Great Lakes, and ut into the Atlantic and Pacific oceans every year. Not
only is there stupendous loss through property destruction and waste of soil
but, there is a stupendous waste Of water which might De utilized in irriga-
ton and in the generation of hydroelectric power.
The engineers ave proposed the construction of immense storage basins
at the headwaters of the great rivers, and of reservoirs in available spots
along the river courses. in which receptacles foodwaters could be held and
released as circumstances might require. There is lot a valley in the coun-
try, it is conceded, that would not be protected and enriched by the conserva
ton, control, and utilization of foodwaters. The Mississippi River is relied
upon to drain a territory Of 1,246OOO square miles. 1t does no drain this
territory adequately. The lower Mississippi Valley suffers great losses by
spring freshets. The Colorado River drains Ia wide area of plateau and
mountain country in Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and Arizona, through the
Grand Canyon.
The Grand Canyon is of the mighdest gashes to be seen IN the face
of the earth. The streams which combine to form the Colorado River have
been scoophng it out for an unknown number of centuries, leaving in places
almost al open plateau, at times a path between terraced cliffs and receding
boundaries widening % fifteen miles, at times a mighty cleft inchosed be-
tween PERCEPTIONS walls from five to six miles apart again in narrowing
gorges from to two miles across at the top.
The Grand Canyon proper, which is preceded by other chasms, is 217h
miles long and from 1000 to 5000 feet deep; if taken together with the Marble
Canyon, the total length, as the river runs, is 2S3 miles. 1t is with the mar
rover gorges, however, that ne is o concerned Through these the conn
pressed river flows along level reaches, alternating with plunging rapids,
averaging a fall of from five to twelve feet to the mile. All the conditions
are here present for the engineer who would build dams, reservoirs, and
irrigating and power plants.
In her appeal Mrs.. Strong says, renewing a practically similar plea made
two years ago, that the provisions asked for through legislation are consruc-
tive, remedial preventive. and devoid Of speculation. If the saving from
floods shall be counted, the cost of dam construction will be more than
recouped. And she adds:
After the dams are built there will be a large increase of water stored
for agricultural purposes, besides water power for hydro-eectric energy.
Each dam could be made a new Niagara Falls, besides supplying the lands
with water that the Secretary of the Interior desires to prepare for homes for
our understands low worthless, desert lands, but with the same pden-