The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1921-12-01
GET READY FOR BIG
DAM IN COLUMBIA
Continued from page u

organized to promote are said to be
breath-taking in their magnitude, but
primarily the purpose of the project
is to develop waterpower for indus
trial purposes, say those who have
been told something of the carefully
guarded plans of the promoters.
Engineers of the government recla-
nation service and employed by pri-
vate irrigation companies have
studied the irrigation possibilities at
Priest Rapids for more than a quarter
| of century, and agreed that land
almost without limit could be wat
cred by pumping were the rapids har-
messed to make cheap power avail
able. Also have they agreed that
irrigation would add from $3.50 to
$3.50 to the value of every now al
most worthless acre of the vast arid
sagebrush plains that lie adjacent to
the river.
To Give Cheap Electricity
But the dreams of the men who
took the lead in organizing the big
project now taking form were to
develop a waterpower that would
give the state of Washington cheap
electrical energy for thousands of in
dustrial uses.
In their visions they saw great
| city Of factories. workshops and ore
smelling and refining plants grow
out of the desert around the tumbling
rapids of the great river. They saw
transmission lines of copper or alumni
mum radiating like the filaments Of
"a mammoth spider web from Priest
Rapids, and carrying electricity for
power, heat and light, to every city,
town and village, not only in this
state, but also perhaps into other
states adjoining.
They saw the power from Priest
Rapids tanned and put to work by a
dam of solid concrete and masonry
90 feet high and miles long turning
and pulling trains carrying to the
markets of the world the products of
factories operated by Priest Rapids
power and bringing to those factories
raw materials hoisted from the mines
and quaries and cut from the forests
by Priest Rapid electricity.
But between dreams and stern re-
alities there is wide gap that must
be bridged to make the dreams come
true.
| Where can such an enormous
amount Of electrical energy be mar
keted?
Solve Marketing Question
This was the question that capital
asked when the men who dreamed
asked capital to invest.
Men with money and men with vi
sions have spent several years in
studying this question and perhaps
it is said, they have not found an
entirely satisfactory answer yet, but
the fact that@they have guardedly
announced their intention to go ahead
with the project is said to indicate
that they have solved the riddle.
| The letting Of the contract for the
making Of test borings for the dam
site also is said to be significant of
progress made in solving the big
question Of marketing the power to
be generated.
The same question had to be solved
electrical engineers say, when Mag
ara Falls was harnessed by q number
Of different power companies. Fac
tories and industrial plants in exist
ence in the vicinity of the falls at
that time could not begin to use all
the electricity that was developed,
so the wisdom of engineers, chemists
and metallurgists Of both America
and Europe was invoked.
Numberless new uses for electricity
in industry were developed or dis
covered and Niagara Falls within a
few years became the center of man.
ufacturing industries that took all
the power and demanded more, ne
cessitating still further development.
May Solve Big Problem
Those who have studied the Priest
Rapids power plant project as out
siders are confident that the raw ma
terials for many Of the industries that
are in successful operation around
Niagara Falls can be found in this
state or nearby in the Pacific North
west and can be utilized at plants
near the great power plant when it is
completed, or worked up in factories
in Seattle and other cities with power
from Priest Rapids.
| "Who knows" they ask, "but wha,
Priest Rapids may solve for the North
Pacific Coast the problem Of obtain.
ing cheap big iron and steel bars and
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