The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1922-11-30

as 400 feet deep and two miles wide,
and are now a great handicap in
reclamation Of lands to the west
ward. A corps Of craftsmen are
now engaged in making plans and
estimates to see If 1t is practical to
build big canal across them on
surveys made this year.
While this last adjustment was
being made, the barrier at Swan
Lake gave way with the unequal
pressure and the waters of Lake
Bonneville burst thru into Lake
Idaho and one of the big rivers of
the world rushed down thru Marsh
valley and ripped out what we call
the Port Neuf valley and helped to
carve the present Snake river can
yon. When Lake Bonneville drained
off 1t formed new shore line or
many different shore lines, and
they can be seen yet in the Salt
Lake valley high up on the mount
ain sides. r'S9
The carving of the Snake river
canyon was not done by water alone,
but chiefly by the sand and gravel
that travelled with the water. While
the old lake was in existence at it's
different levels it was all the time
settling its silt or mud and that has
covered the lava with soil that we
now seek to reclaim by irrigation.
The water that ran down to the sea
was pumped up again by the suction
of the sun and the winds, and
brought back in smaller quantities
to rinse off the landscape again and
again. AS it cooled down, and con-
tracted, some of the molten lava
that was hiden in the depths was
brought under the big squeeze and
it had to burst out somewhere like
soft-boiled egg when you squeeze
it too hard, and we have the Snake
river lavabeds land the Valley Of
the Moon, with no soil deposited
over them excepting what the winds
carried.
Snake river is one of the mystery
streams of the world. On its right
bank it receives no open tributary
from where the north fork enters,
to the mouth of the Boise river ex-
cepting such streams as the Little
Malade, formed by streams that
come out Of that thirty-foot layer Of
gravel already mentioned, sand
WICKED in between the lava flows.
On it's left bank it receives only such
little streams as the Blackfoot, the
Port Neuf, Raft river and the Little
Salmon, yet it grows larger all the
way and at the same time is feeding
great irrigating canals on all it's up
per reaches. Dry beds are every
where pointing into it, canals act as
reverse tributaries, we drain it dry
at places and twenty-five or fifty
miles below it is a rushing river
supplying canals and turning power
plants. The electric power gener-
ated at the water wheels is cabled to
pumping plants and is used to lift
the water up to the level of the
plains constituting the table lands
that were once the mud flats. The
radio operations of the sun and
wind lift the water from the ocean
and deposit it on the mountains to
run down by us, but we have to lead
it out in canals or lift it out with
reverse water wheels called pumps,
to get it where we can use it for
irrigation.
We first started using the electric.
ity for lights, but as we came to
learn it's value for power purposes
we discarded our old engines and
installed electric motors. Then men
began to try it out for pumping and
the demand for it for that use is
rapidly increasing. The same thing
is happening in the operation of
mines that is happening in the OPP
GRAFTON of pumps for irrigation, and
we must install more generators or
somebody must do without lights or
power or pumps.
A water wheel to generate electric
power has meant different things at
different times; it has meant differ
ent things to different people all the