Arizona republican., 1919-09-03
FAVORABLE REPORT MADE IN PROJECT
 ID |RR|GATE LAND

That Maricopa county is likely in the near future to have another 10000 acres under cultivation under new project was learned yesterday for the first time upon the rc-1rn of recon naisance party from the office of the state engineer. The party has spent the last two weeks checking up the possibility of a project on the upper Hassayampa proposes under the Gary act.
 The land in the project is located west of Hot Springs junction. com prising between 13.000 and 10000 acres. The dam location for the storage of the Hassayampa foe. waters is To- cated 20 miles above Wickenburg. The drainage area extends nearly to Pres cott
 The storage dam proposed is to be located on the site of the old Walnut Grove dam, which caused one of the worst disasters in the history of Ari- zona when it went out February 22, 1890.
 The new dam is to be 16s feet high and 675 feet long at the crest and be modern in every detail. It is designed to impound about 60,000 acre feet of water from the floods of the Has sayampa. The reservoir will cover ap- proximately 1,400 acres.
 It is also proposed to construct a diversion dam 90 feet high in the box canyon of the Hassayampa a few miles above Wickenburg. from which point the water is to be carried in canal for distance Of IT miles to the pro- | ject lands near Hot Springs Junction. ' <; 55 miles of canals.
 This proposition is a private project under the provisions ot the Carey act. 1 that is being handled by : Whitman a New Jersey capitalist Under the 1 provisions of the law he has applied for the setting aside from entry of the lands under the project, the applica- ton going to the federal government, and to be approved by the state land department.
 The state engineer, under the law is required to check up the possibility of the project, and if it is approved, permission is then given -or the con- struction of the reclamation works and the land then sold to the person or association making the application and building the improvements.
 While E. c. Deitrich and his assist ants, who made the survey for the state engineers office. have not made their report. it was indicated that t might be favorable, in which case the project is expected to go forward al once
 The cost estimate of the engineers employed by whittmann was s1.062. .00l which is probably low Regardless oi this, any project on the lands of this state where the installation cost does not exceed s100 an acre or even more is regarded by reclamation engineers as feasible and profitable.
 Some History
 | The old Walnut Grove dam. huil about 1888. was rock and dirt fl affair. designed first as storage foi hydraulic mining of gold placer in tn. river valley below, with agriculture development as a poor second in in, terest. It was no feet high, 400 fee long across the crest. The winter o 1SSs90 was exceptionally wet, and tn, reservoir filled rapidly and it wa soon evident that the 1s-foot spillwa, was totally inadequate. It soon be came clogged with drift and the wate began to flow over the top.
 short time after the dam went ou with roar and wall of water at Ieas 4e feet high went tearing down tn canyon. Numerous wagon train freighting to various points wer