The Hays free press., 1921-03-31

Biggest dam in the world is saying a good
deal. There is, for example, the Assuan dam IN
Upper Egypt at the first cataract Of the Nile II
is irrigation dam of solid masonry and is the
largest of its kind in the world. 1t is 1851 feet
long and cost S24,OO0O00. It is 11S feet high and
is to be raised to 141 feet.
Then there is the Gatun dam, essential part
of the Panama canal. 1t is eaIth dam, 9,O4O
feet long, 1900 feet wide and 60 feet high. 1t
creates Gatun lake. which is 164 square miles.
The Shoshone dam in Wyoming, just east Of
the Yellowstone, rises S29 feet and is the highest
masonry dam in the world.
The Roosevelt dam the Salt river in Ari-
zona is 2S6 feet high its base is 235 feet and its
top 1850 feet long. 1t cost S65O0,0OO. 1t makes
a reservoir lake about % miles long and 1 to
miles wide.
The Grand valley reclamation project in Col
Orado has a roller-crest dam across the Grand
river which is the largest in the world.
Now of course, the proposed Colorado river dam
will not be bigger in every way than these mighty
dams. Nevertheless, it will be the biggest OF
all in the that it will be the most spectacu
lar of all dams, from engineering view point.
Perhaps an engineer might call it the most spec
tacular engineering feat in all history.
For the proposed dam will have to be from
500 to 6OO. feet high-nearly twice as high any
such structure in existence. To attain this i'm
mense height it will have to be many times
great in bulk It will have TO be built between
floods in a desperate race against time 1t will
create tremendous reservoir nobody knows just
how big; it will back up the waters of the Col
orado for hundred miles and find its level in the
innumerabe canons leading off both sides
Its promoters claim that it will make fertile by
irrigation great desert; that it will furnish vast
hydro-electric power; that it will help solve the
problem of the Colorado at the Mexican boundary
line, which continually endangers the Imperial
valley of California.
The site of this proposed monster dam is Boul-
der canon. The Colorado, after leaving the Grand
canon runs straight west for a hundred miles
Then it turns almost at right angles to the sQzth
forming the boundary line between Nevada 8nd
California on the west and Arizona on the east
Near this right-angled turn is Boulder canon
1900 feet deep and 800 feet wide at the base
and $50 feet wide where the top of the dam will
come One end of the dam will be in Arizona and
the other in Nevada.
This, you see is dam site worthy of the
great Colorado, which has its headwaters in
Wyoming and drains parts of seven big states.
In Wyoming and Utah this river is called the
Green. The Colorado branch is called the Grand.
The Grand and the Green unite in southeast Utah
to form the Colorado Curiously enough the leg
isatures of Wyoming, Utah and Colorado now
in a to change the Green" and Grand to
Colorado" and bill to this effect is also pending
! In congress.
Many rivers unite to form the majestic Col
oradO The principal branches of the Green are
the Uinta, Price, Tampa and White; OF the Grand
the Eagle, Roaring Fork, GUnniSOn and Dolores
OF the Colorado the Fremont, Escalante Paria.
Kanab and Virgin on the right and the San Juan,
Little Colorado, Bill Williams and Gila on the
left.
The Grand canon is the main river in Ari-
zona and extends from the mouth of the Little
Colorado to the Grand Wash. The Grand Canon
National park contains 994 square miles and en-
closes 217 miles OF the river, which in places
is 5000 feet below the rim OF the canon
The lower Colorado through a low desert
country At Yuma on the Mexican line is an i'm
mense irrigation project which consists OF a di-
version dam nearly a mile long, 400 miles OF
canals and 20 miles of dikes and cost about S.
100000. The water is carried to Arizona lands