The Washington herald., 1921-06-05
By William Atherton Du Puy

river, draining as II oocs infse P-AN.
of seven big western states, can be stopped
BY a single dam thrown across 1t a hundred
miles below the Grand Canyon II this gov
ernment is ready to perform the most spec
tacular engineering feat in all history, SAID
Arthur P. Davis, director of the reclama-
tion service of the United States.
Such q dam," he continued, would
have to be five or six hundred feet high
nearly twice as high as any srch structure
in the world today. To attain twice the
height Of the biggest dam already built 1t
would have to be many times as great in
bulk. It would have to be put In place
under very unusual and eIacting conditions.
1t would be an engineering undertaking
without a precedent Despite all Of which
Congress Is evidencing a strong interest in
the proposal and there are indications that
It will be the nations next great building
venture"
Director Davis had Just returned from the
West. He was bronzed and hard from
months spent in the open, eating food from
q frying pan and sleeping beneath the stars.
He had gone to the Colorado basin under
instructions from Congress. Last year that
body provided funds for a study Of the
master project of the Southwest. 1t gave
evidence of its willingness to undertake great
projects within the borders of the United
States. The war had created the feeling
that anything was possible. Money in
blocks of fifty millions no longer looked
large. Congress seemed to want something
worth while to tackle. AS talked with the
director the committee on irrigation called
up asking for further information.
If the United States had been selecting
for itself an engineer for a type part
in the movies it could not have done bet
ter than pick out this man Davis. He is
big of physique, hard of muscle, has those
protuberances. in front of the ears where
the lower jaw fastens on. They swell out
and then recede as be chews the end of 4
big idea. He has thick, white hair, bushy
eyebrows. He was born in Decatur, Ill, in
1861.
Mr.. Davis began work for the government
when, as youngster, he started out with
a little gauge which he let down into streams
to see how fast they flowed. The govern
nent was just beginning to study the stream
now OF all its waterways. By the time the
building OF the Panama canal came along
he was recognized expert on stream flow.
30 the government asked him to tell il inst
how much water was wandering about in
the watersheds of both the proposed
Nicaragua and Panama canals Thus he
became consulting engineer early in the
game at Panama.
Nov, when it is proposed to stop the
water that drains of of the watersheds
OF seven states and lock it up, the frs,
necessity is for a man who knows all abou,
stream flow.
For years we have measured the water
that flows down the Colorado, said Mr..
Davis. I'VE know approximately how
much Of it there is to stop. Our first tssk
therefore, is to find dam site back of which
,there are storage valleys large enough 70
hold all the flood waters that may come. He
who goes to California on the Santa Fs /.
likely to stop off at the Grand Canyon-,o
look down on it from that plateau 1000 feet
high through which it is cut. Then bs
plunges down to the Colorado river AZ
Needles, near sea level and intensely bo,
These two points are about $50 miles apart
Along the river between them is a chaos ~
mountains and canyons, almost uninhsb;t.d
ha
canyon to the little town of Needles ia The
selected dam site in Boulder canyon. The
population here is a single soul-a man vho
runs ferry across the Colorado for the sc-
commodation Of the occasional traveller
Thirty miles away, on the Nevada sid. I,
the through line Of railroad that connects
Salt Lake City with Les Angeles. The river
flows in a canyon 1000 feet deep. II i.
this solitude that invites Us.
The cash that is here cut through the
rock cliffs is but 800 feet wide at the has.
and $50 feet wide where the top of the dam
would come. Thus the canyon is no wider
than that which was closed BY the Roose-
velt Dam in Arizona, but the structure must
be nearly twice as high. This additional
height makes 1t an incomparably more diff
cult task. 1t is more difficult, also. be-
cause 1t must be put in the bed of a much
greater stream. That stream must be
diverted and its bed made dry for the work.
During the spring months the river is at
tood and is too powerful to be dealt with.
Then comes eight months of comparatively
low water.
1T will be necessary to blast out tunnels
around the dam site that will carry the nor
NAL flow Of the river. Then, some spring,
the vskers win be diverted into these tun-
nels- Between the time of that diversion
and the coming Of high waters the follow
ing spring the river bed will have to be
s1aped to bedrock, probably hundred feet
below the present waterline, and that bed
rock will have to be built up with concrete,
thus making the proper foundation for the
great structure. 1t win be a tense race
against time"
How big a lake will be createdT' I In
quired.
The water will back up the Colorado
nearly a hundred miles," said Mr.. Davis.
1T will find its level in many canyons
leading OF to one side and the other. The
Virgin river flows into the Colorado from
the Nevada side above this dam site. This
L Z l. II Z.