The Challis messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1912-current, 1921-08-10
of the Salmon river and its tributar-

OF Ine Salmon river ana us lrlDuIdr-
les.
Measuring stations have been es
tablshed in the Stanley Basin on all
streams apparently possible to divert
fer use, and daily records OF flow are
being kept. Mr.. Archibald's trip
was to study physical conditions to
be encountered and to determine
whether detailed surveys Of this pos
sible source are justified. He was
accompanied by w r. Armstrong, S.
| n. Hays and Our Will known reclama-
| ton supporter and enthusiast, James
| B. Hays, local engineer who for the
last year or more has devoted no small
amount of time to the compilation of
data and study of this possibility 3
Mr. Archibald's report first reviews
and confirms the conclusions reached
| by the commissioner regarding the ex-
cess of land over available water in
the Snake river valley. He declares
fatty that study shows the Salmon
river to be the only possibility of con
sequence as a source Of water for the
Mountain Home Sunnyside, and con-
versely that this project is the only
place where this water, apparently,
can be utilized
Salient extracts from the report fol-
low:
while stream flow records are
somewhat meagre at the present time,
available data indicates a reasonable
assured supply for irrigation of ap-
proXimately half million acres. Nor
only is this supply fairly close to the
lands on which il can be used, but by
reason OF the high mountain watershed
is unusually constant from year to
year.
Several plans of development ap-
pear possible whereby this water can
be made available one of which is
dam similar to the Arrowrock and
slightly higher, that would form an
enormous reservoir backing water
from point near Stanley, where an
excellent site is found on the Salmon
UP into the Reddish lakes
"The area of this reservoir could
be so great that only few feet fiuc-
ltuation in the surface elevation would
be necessary to handle the entire sup
lply and the lake thus formed would
Iscenic attractions for outing purpos
es.
at woul catch and store practical
ly the entire run-off of upper Salmon
lriver. Water from Clear creek, Cape
Horn creek, and even from Bear valley
all being headwaters of the middle
fork of Salmon river, would then be
diverted in the reservoir by suitable
canals and tunnels.
| Hence the water would be carried
into Snake river by a long tunnel thru
the Sawtooth range. The high dam
and the long tunnel constitute the
only engineering problems of the de-
velopment, as once the water is d.
verted and delivered on the Snake
river side ofythe mountains. the dis
| tribution system necessary to con-
duct it to the vast area reaching from
Hammett on the east, clear around
to Sunnyside and even Mora on the
west. and extending frcm tn noun
tains to Snake river canyon, vii be
relatively simple.
observations of the geographical
conditions of the Sawtooths indicate
that the entire country is underlaid
with a granite formation. Both OF
same site near Stanley and the tunnel
through the mountains would apparen
ly be in solid granite. This is ideal.
both for dam construction and for the
construction ard permanent mainten-
ance of tunnel such as contempla-
ted.
II cannot help but call attention to
various features contributing to the
feasibility of such development
with storage reservoir on the tract
similar to the Deer Flat reservoir, wa
ter could be drawn from the reser-
voir in Stanley basin throughout the
entire year, and for this reason, a
considerable amount of power could
no doubt be generated for use on the
project
Another very important possible
ity is an almost unlimited supply OF
, cold mountain water for domestic anC
municipal use. This is a matter thai
will soon be of great consequence ant
large sums of money will undoubte6
Jly be spent to secure adequate watel