The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1921-08-18
TO BUILD HIGHEST DAM.
Giant Structure Will Harness the Col
OradO River.


tion in the southwest, is to be con-
structed in the near future by the
United States reclamation service.
The dam, according to the tentative
plans, would rise to the unprecedent-
ed height of 500 or 900 feet in Bould-
er canyon, where granite abutments
rise more than 1000 feet above the
water surface. Engineers of the re-
clamation service, af1oat on barges,
are now boring for bedrock beneath.
A lake varying from 80 to so miles
in length would be backed up in the
Colorado and Virgin rivers; and in
this basin would be held in check for
irrigation the drainage from almost
the entire Colorado river basin, in
Guiding parts of six states.
The proposed structure would be
higher by far than the worlds high
est dam at present-Arrowrock dam,
on the Boise river, Idaho, which rises
34S feet-and would top other famous
dams in the United States, among the
highest Of which are:
Shoshone, on the Shoshone river,
Wyoming, 32S feet; Elephant Butte,
on the Rio Grande, New Mexico, 800
feet, and Roosevelt, on the Salt river,
Arizona, 290 feet.
Preliminary work on the Boulder
canyon project is being done under
authority of congress, which appro-
priated $4,000 for investigation. An
additional $4,000 was contributed
local irrigators. Engineers have To-
Gated a site and are making borings
for foundations. While these are in
complete, bedrock has been located
at a number of points and the outlook
is favorable, according to Arthur P.
Davis, director reclamation service.
Interests from the irrigable region
are expecting to bring their problem
before congress at the present ses-
sion, and through the committee on
irrigation seek government aid, it is
understood, but the exact nature of
their proposal, whether an out and
out appropriation, government loan,
or extension of credit has not been
announced.
So uPmanageable has the river
been id the past that it has often
changed its lower channel. Like a
huge elephant with body over seven
states it swung it's trunk about
through the solf-silt delta, uncon-
trollable at food and destructive to
canals and levees.
So active did the trunk become in
1895 that it entered, the California
Development compsny's imperial ca
nal, running through part of Mexico
to the Imperial valley, and poured
the entire river into t1e Saltcn sink,
200 feet below the sea level. 1t ate
out the canal, enlarged the Salton
sink and formed a cataract which
threatened to work its way back
through the soft lard, with great
damage. Only the activity of the
Southern Pacific railway in building
dam across the widening mouth of
the canal channel, after a hard fight
with the river, were able to swing the
channel back again to the Gulf of
California.
The Laguna dam, built in 1899,
joining Arizona and California, has
resisted food water, but complaints
of broken levees, and later scant wa
ter for the rapidly increasing area of
irrigated land, continue. Complica-
tions with Mexico in the Imperial
canal add to the problem, and the en-
tire situation is pressing southwest
interests to action.
In addition to the Boulder dam
project, the 1mperlal lrr1satlon dis
trict is pushing plan to tap the Le-
guna dam and build an all-American
high line canal on higher level, irri-
gate more extensive acreage and
avoid Mexican relations.
The Boulder canyon dam project,
located below. the Grand canyon
near Las Vegas, Nevada, where en-
gineers are now boring, is the most
advantageous position of any project
ed sites, according to the preliminary
report made to congress by the re-
clamation service. A dam there
would intercept most of the drain
age of the Colorado river, and, there
fore, be a more complete solution of
the food control problem" the report
says, "Such reservoir would also be
more valuable in the irrigation of
lands on the lower river on account
of the great proximity to them, and
the consequent possibility of regulat-