The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1923-04-05

his office in Boise in four hours, to
be used by his chief, F. E. Wey-
mouth, as a basis for recommends
tions and legislation under consid-
Grafton at Washington, and then on
the following year or two, having
built the work for a sum that was
within a thousand dollars of the
estimate given under those circum-
stances. In his estimate of the cost
of the Arrow Rock dam, exclusive
of the canal system to serve the
project, hea had to deal with ire
mendous engineering difficulties in
volving the removal of vast bodies
of loose rock extending ninety feet
below the bed of the river, and at
the same time maintaining Golfer
dams and tunnel connections to
carry the river and all it's floods
down the canyon while the work
men built the foundations for the
dam ninety feet below the bed of
the river. He allowed for all the
leaks and breaks and patches that
he might reasonably expect in the
Golfer dams and all the cave-ins and
land slides that might be expected
in the canyon up to the time the
foundations were anchored on bed
rock and brought up above the flood
line, and then he went out and COM
pleted the dam for million dollars
less than the estimate. The canal
system cost great deal more than
the estimated cost, but the original
plans were changed to make better
canal system and to greatly extend
it, making not only the canals but
the laterals for the settlers.
By reason of Mr. Banks achieve
ments and his record in other work
for the government, the department
of reclamation is keeping him in
charge of this, it's greatest reservoir
project. 1t employed one OF the
most eminent biologists in the Unit
ed States, Professor w. G. Crosby of
the Boston Institute of Technology
to come to the Snake river valley /
and spend a couple of weeks in
and analyzing the geologi-
cal formation of the American Falls |
reservoir site.
Professor Crosby's report showed
t to be tight reservoir site pre-
pared by the powers of Creation,
lnderlaid with a layer of solid lava,
| layer of oxidized Obsidian, layer
If tough cOnglomerate, a layer of
lint Obsidion and a layer of sand
tone with probable other layers of
ava beneath, and he told them
where to drill holes to test his
heory and to discover any breaks,
aults or possible sources of leaks
rom the proposed reservoir. He
old than uh oil
lille filled all that country border
ng the shores of the present Salt
lake outward and up to several
hundred feet above the present
vater level, there was a break in
he earth's crust-a fault-cutting
iagonally across the present cata-
act at American Falls, and that
yhen the waters of Lake Bonneville
roke thru the present Swan Lake
ass between DOwney and Preston,
daho, that it carried the Founders
own thru the Port Neuf canyon ,
nd deposited them as part of the
'reckage that strews the mouth of
he canyon in the vicinity of Poca-
clio, and at the fault in the chan
ell of Snake river it ripped out the ,
cad of the canyon that now extends :
'om American Falls for thousand +
lilies, into the state of Washington. 6
The pressure of floods into the {
alley, carrying materials with it I
lat covered vast areas on the east j
m side of the valley above Ameri- t
IN Falls and built up the plateaus l
nat now terminate in the bluffs !
here they have since been cross a
,ctioned by the still greater floods t
ON the headwaters of Snake river, t
lie laying of billions of tons weight a
Dove and below the fault failed to C
lrther wrench or wreck it, and S
aves a natural barrier across the e
lannel, with the vast basin above, t
,ooped out but still water tight as C
by the myriads of springs
sing in the reservoir site, and by I
lie ground water in all the sur v
,unding terrain being higher than j
lie proposed water level of the res t
rvoir and all apparently flowing o
ward and into the reservoir. f
Tests made at ninety five places a
it'll a combined linear depth of six I
feet bore out his theory t.
I'd analysis, and it is considered p