Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1921-03-25


river.
Below Yuma the river, when in flood, mandates
large areas lying below sea level In 1900 tne
floods enlarged the 50foot intake of the 1mperiai
valley irrigation canal In Mexican territory 10
$500 feet. 1t poured all it's waters through TINS
break and It's regular channel to the Gull u
California went dry This break was not sue
cessfully closed until 1906-O7. Floods again
threatened to drown out the Imperial valley anu 1
in 1909-lO congressional appropriation OF qA'
100000 was applied to the construction OF levees
and dikes Most Of the Imperial valley is below
sea level and was formerly part of the Gun
Of California. The Colorado built itself an aque-
duct from its silt and cut off the part 70 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 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 are some Of the things ne
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 to stop. Our first task,
therefore, is to find dam site back Of which
there are storage valleys large enough to hold all
the flood waters that may come. The Grand canon
and Needles on the Santa Fe are about 25O miles
apart. Along the river between them is chaos
Of mountains and canons, almost uninhabited.
the selected dam site in Boulder canon.
Canon Marrow Here.
.The cash that is here cut through the rock
cliffs is but 800 feet wide at the base and 750 feet
wide where the top of the dam would come Thus
the canon is no wider than that which was closed
nv the Roosevelt dam in Arizona but the struc-
ture must be nearly twice as high. This addi-
tionaL height makes it incomparably more
difficult task. 1t is more difficult, ALSO because
If must be put in the bed of a much greater
stream That stream must be diverted and it's bed
made dry for the work During the spring months
the river is at flood and is too powerful to be
dealt with Then comes eight months Of COM
paratively low water.
at 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
he scraped to bedrock probably hundred feet
below the present waterline, and that bedrock
will have to be built up with concrete, thus max
ing the proper foundation for the great structure
It will be race against time
"The water will back up the Colorado nearly
a hundred miles. 1t will find Its level in many
canons leading off to one side and the other.
The Virgin river flows into the Colorado from the
Nevada side above this dam site. This river opens
ont in a wide valley 1t will furnish the principal
storage basin of the project. Two desert villages
in Nevada will be inundated. Between them they
represent but dozen homes
"The relief to be afforded, is 300 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
fornia AGO. 600 acres of this land, below sea level
has already been privately reclaimed and is oc
cnnied. There are other lesser valleys along the
lower river on either side.
GAIL these projects interfered with by the
fact that the Colorado is given to huge floods in
the spring, but runs quite low at other seasons
# furnishes either not enough water or too much
While the desert is parched all about great floods
rim into the sea unused.