The Glasgow courier. [volume] (Glasgow, Mont.) 1913-current, 1921-01-14
G. N. and N. P.
Will ELECTRIFY
Waters of KOOtenai River and
Flathead Lake Will Furnish
Power to Railroads.
IRRIGATION WORK PLANNED
Word Received at Helena Last Week
Announces Mammoth Development
Plans to be started Early Next
Spring. Big Plant To Be Con-
structed at kOOtenai.

Helena, JAM. 1O.-The electrifcation
of the Great Northern and Northern
Pacific railway systems over the noun
tain ranges in the west from power to
be developed from Flathead lake and
kootenai river in Montana, is the pro-
gram which both railroads are under
taking, according to reports in Hell
ena.
Starts Next Spring.
The Great Northern will start next
spring installing a hydro-electric plant
on the Kotenai, the site having been
acquired a few months ago when the
railroad won a suit from the govern
ment. The Northern Pacific, it is said,
plans to obtain it's power from the
dam to be built at the outlet of Flat
head lake by the Rocky Mountain
Power company, a subsidiary of the
Montana Power company, the Rocky
Mountain concern having obtained a
lease from the government under the
water power leasing bill.
The Flathead lake dam is also to
supply water for the largest irriga-
ito project in the United States, the
Columbia River Basin project in Wash
ington. The surface of the lake is to
be raised 10 feet by a series of gates
that will store the flood water and
release it into the Flathead River when
needed. The power is to be generated
by running the water from the lake
through a canal and then dropping it
into the turbines.
Store Power in Idaho.
The water is to go about 100 miles
in the river and will then be stored in
Lake Pend O'Reille in the Panhan-
die in Idaho. From there it will be
taken several hundred miles through
the biggest canal system in the world.
The irrigated area will be approx
mately a million and three-quarters
acres. The cost Of the project will be
about $500 ,000, 900. The canals will
be cement lined.
The mean annual flow from Flat
head lake is about $500 cubic feet a
second, according to w. A. Lamb, dis
trict engineer of the United States
reclamation service here. In its flood
stages the lake yields as much as 49,
900 cubic feet a second, most of which
is lost to industry or agriculture.
100000 Horsepower.
The Rocky Mountain Power COM
pany filed it's application for the lease
of the Flathead power site on June 10,
1920, and there was another applica-
ton, that of the Montana Water Power
and Electric company of Portland, Ore.
The former c has it's headquar-
ter in New York.
The Flathead dam will generate
about 100000 horsepower of electricity
about the same as the plants at Great
Falls it is said. The cost of construc-
ton will be less than that of any of
the dams of the Montana Power COM
pany on the Missouri river.
Convenient to Both Roads.
The dam will be so situated that
only a comparatively short transmits
sion line will have to be built to con-
meet with the Northern Pacific main
line and the same distance would reach
the Great Northern also. The North
ern Pacific would also have available
power from the Missouri river dams,
with Helena as the most convenient
point to draw from.
The Geat Northern, with it's Koote-
mai site, which is along the main line,
expects to have sufficient power for its
W uses. 1t seems certain, however,
that Montana is supply practically
all of the electric power for pulling
the trains of the two roads wei the
Rockies, as is being done by the Chi
cago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railroad.
which road has proved beyond ques-
ton the feasibility and economy of the
electrification of railroads.