Arizona republican., 1921-07-03
Florence-Casa Grande
 To Celebrate Tomorrow
 Laying of the Main Slab

aprons. and will have a height of fl feet above the river bed.
 All the diversion gates will be on the southside. the northside canal be- ing small and supplied by a delivery or water through a concrete bore in the main dam- The southside canal will be 40 feet wide on the bottom and have capacity of 1000 second- feet Of water The intake gates will pc or the skimming type, hinged at the bottom and lying flat when fully opened Four slufce ways on the south end of the dam will keen the current of the river to that side. and provide for the discharge of the coarse silts- Settling basins and silt gates will be located just below the dam in the canal
 Canal System
 The canal will lead southwest from the dam to a point approximately seven miles south and west of Flor ence. Here the Branch canal to the Indian reservation will lead off down through the famous Wentworth sec ton of the valley, past the Casa Ruins nine miles west of Florence. and emptying into the little GiIa canal on. the reservation for the pur- pose Of supplying Indian lands below.
 The Main canal will lead on south and empty into the Picacho reservoir. rom which the Casa Grande lateral leads west and little south. across the Southern Pacific railroad tracks and ending at a point few miles south and west of Casa Grande. and. providing irrigation for those lands If the Casa Grande unit which are in ciuded in the project
 Forerunner of San Carlos
 After many trying years the peopl, 10 anr 1.-4- Florence and Casa Grande are about to come into their own. The building or this diversion project is but the | forerunner of the construction of a great storage dam at the San Carlos damsite for the storing of the floods of the Gila river. The Buttes and Riverside sites have both been de- stroyed by the construction of the Arizona Eastern railroad through ' them on low line. The only site remaining is the San Carlos site. which. fortunately. is by far the best site on the river. with the most favor able conditions for the construction 1 of g great dam and with a storage basin above greater in capacity than that above the Roosevelt dam
 San Carlos Conditions Ideal
 The physical conditions are more | favorable at the San Carlos damsite l dam than at any other known point in the southwest The bedrock is | only 20 feet below the bed of the l river. the damsite is accessible to | railroad facilities with the construc- 1 ton Of but few miles of track. the canyon walls and bedrock are of hard quartzite--a rock of the finest | quality for the purposes needed: the canyon walls are so narrow and so l high that A dam of nraeficafIr a nV | heighth desired can be constructed. the basin opens out so rapidly and broadly above the damsite that tre- l mendous volume of deep water near | the dam can be stored; and last but not least the Gila river has been dis J charged through the damsite. on the | average of nearly a million acre feet of water per annum during the past l ten years: several years the dis charge ran a great deal more than that. The storage capacity of dam l at San Carlos ten feet less in heighth above, the bedrock than the Roosevelt dam. would be 250.000 acre-feet more ! than the Roosevelt dam, or 1.600, 900 | acre-feet-
 Needless to say it cannot and will not be long before the work will be under way in the canyon on the San Carlos dam In the meantime the people of Florence and Casa Grande and the valley between are overjoyed at the near fruition of their long 1 deferred hopes, and are entitled to celebrate most gloriously the fact that the mighty diversion works are now safe from the floods of the river. and that with the coming fall the | fully completed darn will be ready to serve their needs. Arizona rejoice. with them in their good fortune.