Morgan County Democrat. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1886-1943, 1935-10-03
Boulder Dam Dedicated
By President Roosevelt


By President Roosevelt
Boulder Dam, Nevada, the great
est ever constructed, was officially
dedicated Monday by President
Roosevelt
The colossal dam that shoulders
the greatest lake that man ever
made, is decided to the American
people and to posterity by the pres
ident of the United States. Five
years ago, almost to the day,
frontier celebration marked the be-
ginning of work. The celebrants,
hailing from six of the seven states
in the Colorado river basin, had al
most insurmountable difficulties in
reaching this widest section of the
southwest's desert mountains. They
were awed by the savage grandeur
of the scene, by the massive noun
tains, by the unpeopled terrain, by
the turbulent and embarrassed
splendor of the roaring Colorado
and Virgin rivers that slashed their
courses through the gorges Of the
deserted desert range. They listen
ed with wonderment to then Secre-
tary of the Interior Ray Lyman
Wilbur, as he waved wand of
words and promised that some
day America could lay formal claim
to a reservoir whose capacity is 10
trillion gallons of water-a gigantic
fountain from which should tumble
life-blood for the vast stretches of
the great southwest.
A city stands today where only a
scraggly row of surveyors tents
stood five years ago. And down the
great canyon where the promise of
President Hoover's ambassador
echoed, hears the voice of President
and dedicating the fulfillment of
that promise.
The magnitude of the project
may be cleaned by rejecting that
| the largest of the Egyptian pyra-
mids contains approximately the
same yardage as Boulder dam. But
it took the Egyptians 20 years to
complete 1t with 100000 men.
| Boulder dam consumed nearly a
million pounds Of cement and con-
crete work and was completed in
20 months with only 1000 men.
The immensely Of the operations
| in Black canyon is even more
graphically conveyed by the fact
that it will still take three years or
more to complete the filing Of the
reservoir. When filled to capacity,
30,500,000 acre feet, the lake will
be lis miles long and $50 feet
deep At this time the lake is lit
tie more than "a miles long and
286 feet deep. 1t is being filled at
the rate of 4,S87,750,000 gallons a
day.
Seven hundred gallons of water
for every man, woman and child on
earth, is already stored in this
reservoir. Walker r. Young, con-
struction engineer of the Boulder
canyon project for the United
States bureau of reclamation, states
that the present storage is $780,
900 acre feet. Thus when capacity
is attained, the reservoir will store
enough water to provide all hui
manity with 1000 gallons apiece.
The Colorado and Virgin rivers
are pouring approximately $4,000
acre feet of water a day into the
reservoir now. During flood season
this rate was increased to 12O, 200
acre feet, or nearly 50,000,000,O00
gallons of water. So vast will the
| lake be that engineers estimate
that some 100000, 100000 gallons
of water will evaporate annually.
One feature of the dedication GER
emony was the issuance Sept. 80 by
the postmaster of Boulder city of
a special three cent stamp commem-
Grating the event. An airplane view
of Boulder dam is the central sub
| ject of the new stamp.
Six Companies, Inc, builders Of
the dam, had contracted to complete
the dam by April, 1888. They are
thus two years and seven months
electric plant is ready now to gen.
crate power. The important task OF
building four diversion tunnels,
| two in Arizona and two on the Me-
yada side Of the Colorado river, to
allow the next flood to pass safely
| to the lower reaches of the river,
has been completed. But the next
flood will be the last to escape i'm
pounding behind the massive walls.
INCORPORATING and swimming now
| are the chief diversions on the lake,
but by next year there will be some
good fishing for Uncle Sam is plant
| ing bass in enormous quantities.
| The u. S. bureau of fisheries is
planning to erect 100000 fish
hatchery near the lake. Besides
| bass the bureau plans to stock the
lake with such fish as the google
eye or crappie and Dream or sun
| fish. Trout will be planted in the
Colorado river below the dam. First
shipments of bass have already
been made from the bureaus hatch
cry at Dexter, N. M, SO that Boul-
der dam lake is well on it's way to
become a fisherman's paradise.
Construction Of the engineering
marvel cost $165, 900, and 86
lives. This later figure includes all
accidental deaths to date. This loss
of life was 10 fewer than the toll
taken in the construction of San
Francisco's great Hetch Hetchy wa
ter project and compares with loss
of $3.50 men in the construction by
the American government, of the
Panama canal. That figure, how
ever, included the heavy loss of
life due to tropical diseases. Col
umbus Dispatch.