The Hays free press., 1921-03-31

by 1.0OO-foot tunnel which passes under the
river
Below Yuma the river when in food mandates
large areas lying below level. In 1905 the
floods enlarged the 50-fOot intake Of the Imperial
valley irrigation canal in Mexican territory to
$500 feet. It poured all its waters through this
break and its regular channel to the Gulf Of
California went dry. This break not sue
cessfully closed until 1906-07. Floods again
threatened to drown out the Imperial valley and
in 1909-10 a congressional appropriation Of ST.
100000 was applied to the construction Of levees
and dikes Most of the Imperial valley is below
sea level and formerly a part of the Gulf
of California. The Colorado built itself an aQue-
duct from its silt and cut of the part to the
north. Evaporation did the rest.
1t is thus evident that much depends upon the
vagaries of the mighty, restless river. year
or so ago congress provided funds for a study Of
a project to control it Arthur P Davis, director
OF the reclamation service department Of the in
terror, has just returned from trip along the
lower river Here of the things he
has to say regarding the Boulder dam project:
For years We have measured the water that
flows down the Colorado We know approximately
how much of it there is stop. Our first task,
therefore is to find dam site back of which
there storage valleys large enough to hold all
the flood waters that may come. The Grand canon
and Needles on the Santa Fe about $50 miles
apart. Along the river between them is a chaos
of mountains and canOns, almost uninhabited.
Twothirds of the way down from the canon is
the selected dam site in Boulder canon.
Canon Narrow Here.
'HThe cash that is mere cut through the rock
cliffs is but 800 feet wide at the base and $50 feet
wide where the top of the dam would come Thus
the canon is wider than that which closed
by the Roosevelt dam in Arizona but the struc-
ture must be nearly twice high. This addi-
tonal height makes it an incomparably more
difficult task. 1t is more difficult, also because
it must be put in the bed of a much greater
stream. That stream must be diverted and its bed
made dry for the work. During the spring months
is at q he
dealt with. Then eight months Of COM
parativey low water,
1T will be necessary to blast out tunnels around
the dam site that will carry the normal flow of
the river Then some spring, the waters will be
diverted into these tunnels. Between the time
of that diversion and the coming of high waters
the following spring the river bed will have to
be Scraped to bedrock. probably q hundred feet
below the present waterlne, and that bedrock
will have to be built up with concrete, thus max
ing proper foundation for the great structure.
1t will be a against time
1.-The water will back up the Colorado nearly
a hundred miles. 1t will find its level in many
canons leading off to side and the other.
The Virgin river flows into the Colorado from the
Nevada side above this dam site. This river opens
out in wide valley. It will furnish the principal
storage basin of the project Two desert villages
in Nevada will be inundated. Between them they
represent but dozen homes
'IThe relief to be afforded, is 800 miles away
on the lower reaches Of the stream. Near the
border of Arizona, California and Mexico there
are extensive areas of desert land which, with
water for irrigation, may be transformed to what
are probably the most productive farms in the
United States. In the Colorado desert in Cal
ifornia 100000 of this land, below sea level
mas already been privately reclaimed and Is oc-
cupied. There are other lesser valleys along the
lower river on either side.
"AI these projects are interfered with by the
fact that the Colorado is given to huge floods in
the spring. but runs quite low at other seasons
It furnishes either not enough water or too much
While the desert is parched all about great foods
run into the sea unused.