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(Copyright, 1911, by Frank O. Carpenter.)
ASHINGTON, D. C. The Great American
Desert ia a thing of the past. Like
Moses of old in the wilderness of Sinai,
Uncle Sam, patrarch, has struck its
rocks with his magic rod and the water
has gushed forth, creating oases richer
than the valley of the Nile or the
Ganges. He has plied up tens of millions to reclaim
the bare lands and has an army of engineers and la
borers at work turning them into farms for his people.
Last year he had 14,000 men digging, blasting and
damming. He has already built so many canals that
if they were laid end to end they would reach from
New York to San Francisco and back to New Orleans,
or, It measured upon the Pacific, would extend from
California to China. Some of these canals carry
whole rivers. He has built about 500 miles of wagon
roads, bas excavated more than twenty miles of tun
nels and altogether has taken out enough earth to
.equal a ditch three feet wide and' three feet deep run-
nlng clear around the world at the Equator, and in
addition to equal a hole three feet square run through
the globe from one side to the other, and a similar
tunnel dug at right angles to this from pole to pole.
Where the Oases Are.
This is the work of the reclamation service, which
la backed by a capital of about 190,000,000, and of
.which 1 6 0,0 00 JO 00 are already invested. There are
.110,000,000 left of the reclamation fund, and in addi
tion 120,000,000 more which have been appropriated
Jty congress and are at the command of the service.
..This great work is headed by some of the ablest or
ganizers and most skilled engineers of Uncle Sam's
scientific army. I have spent this week at their office
.building in Washington; it has a large number of
clerks, although the actual constructive operations
are scattered all over the west. The Washington
bureau has photographs of every stage of the work;
it receives dally reports of what la being done, and
' one can get a bird's-eye view of the mighty under
takings which are now under way. The government
scientists have made maps of the country, testing
" every slope, hill and valleyi They have measured the
' water in the air overhead, and with diamond drills
1'have tested the beds of the ycanyons beneath In sink
. lag the foundations for dams which will store up the
rainfall; they have done so much drilling that if the
holes could be placed end to end they would reach
more than ten miles down into the rocky heart of old
. Mother Earth.
In company with Dr. F. H. Newell, the director,
and one of the engineers, Mr. C. J.' Blanchard, I have
" gone over the maps showing where the various re
clamation projects are situated. Broadly speaking,
they cover the whole arid west extending from the
great plains to the Pacific. Those of the great plains
are in a country which bas been largely devoted to
grating and which had enough rainfall to produce
food for the millions of buffaloes which once wan
dered over it. These projects are In the western
parts of Kansas, Nebraska and the Dakotas.
'Another division la situated on the great plateau
which lies between the Rocky mountains and the
Sierra Nevada and Cascades, while others are on the
Pacific slope still farther west. There are In all
thirty-four of them, in each of which work is now
.going on, and la many of which water Is already flow
ing over the lands.
for
Uncle Sam's Big Dams,
Every one of these oases contains wonders enough
a letter, and some are so remarkable that they
cannot be passed without notice; they are all watered
by dams which have created reservoirs in the moun
tains, and some of these dams are of enormous extent.
Take the Shoshone river in northern Wyoming, on
the borders of Yellowstone park; that dam is a wedge
of solid concrete higher than the dome of the national
capitol at Washington, and it holds back a. beautiful
lake, 100 feet deep, covering more than 6,000 square
acres. The dam is eighty-five feet long at the bottom
. add it rites up to a distance of 328 feet between
nearly perpendicular cliffs measuring about 200 feet
wide at the top; it is the highest of all masonry dams
and it will reclaim 132,000 acres of some of the rich
est laad upon earth. Of this 123,000 acres are pub
lic property ,and they will be opened to settlement
by the secretary of the interior when the works are
completed.
Jus below this dam Is another which diverts the
' stream into a tunnel over three miles in length, car
drying the waters lnto a broad canal and thence out to
the farm landa Thousands of acres of that tract
have already been settled. Hundreds of families' are
established and towns are springing to being.
Another great dam Is the Pathfinder, named after
General John C. Fremont, the noted explorer. Gen
eral Fremont nearly lost his life while attempting to
cross in a boat. The structure will be 215 feet high
and will store enough water to cover a million acres
to the depth of a foot. In connection with the dam
and the reservoir the government has built a canal
ninety-five miles in length to carry the water on to
the lands of Wyoming and Nebraska. This canal is
lined for miles with cement, and in places the water
1b carried over the country on viaducts made of con
crete. This Is in what is known as the North Platte
Project; It Is located about 100 'miles north of Chey
enne, being tributary to three dlffeernt railroads.
About 80,000 acres of land have already been taken
up and they will soon be covered with farms.
The Roosevelt Dam.
The largest dam of all, however, is the Roosevelt
dam, the completion of which was celebrated last
spring, and whose water is now flowing over thou
sands of acres, which, a short time ago, were as
thirsty and dry as the heart of Sahara. This is sit
uated in the Salt river valley In southern Arizona,
not far from Phoenix, in a region so arid that it has
been nicknamed "The Land That God Forgt," Never
theless, it was irrigated to some extent in ancient
times, and the white man has irrigated farms there
for over forty years. Apache Indians here aided in
the government work.
The dam will hold back a million and a quarter
acre feet of water and it will make 240,000 acres a
very Garden of Eden.. The country there is so hot
that a vast deal of water will be needed to keep the
lands moist. As much as four feet can be used to
advantage, so that if the water used in a year should
stay on the land it would cover it to the height of
one's chest.
In the Yuma project, which is still farther south,
at the Junction of the Gila and Colorado rivers, the
climate Is still hotter and the land can drink up five
and a half feet of water per annum, so much that, if
left. It would drown out all the girls under five feet
six who will soon be living upon It.
The Roosevelt dam is made of sandstone and ce
ment; it Is as high as any office building of twenty
one stories and Its length at the top is equal to two
city blocks; It is, in fact, over 1,000 feet long; it Is
170 feet thick at the bottom and over a third of a mil
lion barrels of cement were used In its construction.
This was made by the government at works created
for the purpose resulting In a saving of $600,000 on
that Item alone. This dam will furnish electric
power, which will be used for pumping water from
underground in the Salt rjver valley, adding some
thing like a thousand more farms to the cultivated
area.
TJlirle Sam's Irrigated Farms.
These dams and the others connected with them
now being made by the reclamation service will add
enormously to our national fruit and bread basket.
. The lands reclaimed are naturally the richest of the
world; they are made up of the earth washings of the
mountains, whose fertilizing materials have not been
carried away by the rains. The soil is as hot as that
of a hotbed. Ia most places it surpasses that of the
Nile valley, and altogether there is so much of it that
it will add more than seven Egypts to Uncle Sam's
farms. All the land now cultivated in Egypt is a lit
tle more than 6,000,000 acres. When our reclama
tion, project aro completed they4 will reclaim, .45,000,
000 or 50,000,000 acres, and If the land should sup
port proportionately as many people as does the val
ley of the Nile they will feed something like
77,000,000.
This means results which are far in the future
and somewhat beyond what the engineers now claim.
Mr. Blanchard tells me that there will undoubtedly
be enough land for 1,000,000 families, and in this he
estimates the farms at thirty or forty acreB each. One
acre of any of these oases is easily equal to five or ten
acnes of Illinois or Iowa, and it Is said that a family
can be supported on a five or ten-acre patch. About
1,000,000 acres have already been covered with water
and homes by the hundreds are being cut out of the
sand. On many of the oases towns have already gone
up, street railroads have been built, school houses and
other public buildings constructed and social and po-
litlcal communities are well under way.
What Has Been Done.
Let me run over some oC the projects and tell you
a little of what has been done. Take Yuma, on the
Colorado river, on the southeastern boundaries of
Arizona and California. There is a dam there almost
a mile long, that is as high as a two-story house,
which will eventually irrigate about 97,000 acres of
land. The dam was completed about two years ago
and a distribution system of 187 miles of canals has
been laid out and Is well under way. The lands here
are partly in California and partly In Arizona. The
total area redeemed will be about 100,000 acres, of
which 80,000 will be in Arizona. About 5,000 acres
of land are already under Irrigation on the California
side of the river and other lands are open to settle
ment. The country never has frost and its hot troplo&l
sun fits It for the cultivation of oranges, lemons,
grapefruit, dates, etc. It Is an ideal region for os
triches and it will vie with South Africa in the raising
of feathers for our American market.
Jumping to the extreme nortn, where the Shoshone
river has now been turned on the lands, a number of
towna have been laid out and some are fast growing.
Cody, which was named after "Buffalo Bill," has a
population of 2,500, with three banks, stores, lumber
yards and hotels. An electric plant furnishes the
town with light and power and It has a sulphur plant,
a brickyard and a flour mill, which grinds 125 barrels
every day. Garland, another town, has about 500
people, and Powell and RaUton are other settlements
out to settlers in tracts of forty acres and eighty
acres each. The most of the farmers think forty
acres enough to yield a good income and say that .Is
all the land one man can comfortably handle. They
sandy loam, fitted for alfalfa, grain and deciduous
fruits. There Is a grazing country about and the
irrigated lands are well fitted for sheep.
The Work In Montana.
From Shoshone let us go north Into Montana and
take a look at Huntley, which lies at the junction of
the Northern Pacific and Chicago, Burlington &
Qulncy railroads, on the south bank of the Yellow
stone river. Here He about 29,000 acres upon which
Uncle Sam has put water, and which he is now giving
fore it was ready for settlement, but the lands are
now being paid for and every cent of the money will
eventually come back Into the treasury.
Where Apple is King.
Going westward into Oregon and Washington,
we reach the fruit lands where the chances are even
greater than in the Irrigated sections farther east.
Here are the Yakima projects in a region where
full bearing apple orchards produce crops worth
from $300 to $1,200 per acre, and where peaches
do quite as well. Yakima county Is shipping hun
dreds of thousands of boxes of apples each year, and
millions of young trees are now growing. Alfalfa
hay brings there $5 a ton in the stack, and in one
year the valley where this project is situated sold
Its hay crop for $2,000,000. This Is a country of
towns, newspapers and . up-to-date people. There
are many private irrigation works under way, and
the products of the valley are so well known that
they command a ready market. It is a land of banks,
schools and churches, and one where the social con
ditions are already established. The government
estimates that by proper storage sufficient water
can be saved to Irrigate 460,000 acres, and a large
area Is now under water. Dams have been put up,
canals dug, and the farmers are tilling the soil.
The cost of the land on the ten-year installment plan
is $52 per acre, and the maintenance charge is 9F
cents per acre per anium. This seems rather high
for one who does not understand the conditions,
but when It is remembered that orchards are worth
from $500 to several thousand dollars per acre,
when they have once come into bearing, the possible
profits are plain.
Another fruit project in Washington is the
Okanogan, which will redeem 10,000 acres of hlgh
. grade fruit lands. This is completed. '
Going south we come to the Umatilla irrigation
works on the edge of Washington, in northern Ore
gon. Here an earthen embankment a half mile long
and 100 feet high will hold back the floods. The
soil is porous and many of the canals have been lined
tell, however, of extraordinary yields of vegetables, Njth cement on that account. Several towns have
sugar beets, fruits and grain, and are making good
In every possible way. The ton of Huntley la fast
growing and it has churches, baaks and hotels. Os
born Is another town which has sprung up, and near
it is Ballantlne, which has five stores and a postoffice,
while Warden and Newton are also fast growing.
The irrigation here was practically completed in
1907 and hundreds of famlllies are now on the lands.
Many are raising alfalfa, which they sell for $8 a
ton, and not a few have diversified crops from which
they are getting from $800 to $2,000 per annum on
forty-acre farms. Nevertheless, the soil bad not been
scratched by the plow before the government took
hold of It. Uncle Sam had to spend $1,000,000 be
which aro rapidly growing Here tha soil J a rlcU
grown up in this region, of which Hermiston has
1.000 or more population.
California Works.
Still farther south is the Klamath project on the
boundary of Oregon and California, which will re
claim 190,000 acres. Of this about 30,000 'acres
are already under water, and about 40 per cent of
the work bas been completed. A storage dam has
been built which makes Clear lake a reservoir and
there are other storage projects which will ultimately
Irrigate this vast tract of land.
The Orland project in northern California is
also progressing. About 77 per cent of the work
water for ab'out 14,000 acres. The dam Is 130 feet
high and it has a reservoir capacity of 45,000 acre
feet. This lies about ninety miles north of Bacra-
. i .v. r. .1 I 1 n , rr
greater part of it will be opened this year.
The Heart of the Rockies.
Some of the biggest schemes which the govern
ment has now under way lie in the heart of the
Rockies, or, rather, on the great western plateau.
In Utah we have the strawberry valley project, which
will redeem 60,000 acres. It is now 45 per Cent
completed. In Nevada is the Truckee-Carson proj
ject which involves more than 600 miles of canals,
and 50,000 feet of dykes and dams. This when fin
ished will irrigate 260,000 acres, and the first unit
is now ready. . ' .
In Colorado the Gunnison river has been carried
under a mountain 2,000 feet high by a tunnel six
miles in length into the Uncompahgre valley. This
is a part of a scheme which eventually will irrigate
140,000 acres, and the engineering connected with
it is most remarkable. The tunnel was mad In
eight-hour shifts, the work being kept up day and
night, and It was competed In the shortest time upon
record. In one month 823 feet were made, and one
gang of laborers dug out 7,600 feet in one year.
Some Operations in Texas and Nebraska.
I have already written of the Pathfinder dam.
1 U1B 1 B LUUUBLLCU W1U1 S. LIBS linUIBHSIl I mini L 1 1 II 1 II
North Platte river, and it includes a diversion' dam
600 feet long and twenty feet high which has been
built across that river near the station of Whalen.
An interstate canal carries the waters stored' In the
Pathfinder reservoir through this dam over the lands
of Wyoming and Nebraska. This project 1b about
three-fourths completed. The canal has been dug
to a length of 100 miles, supplying about 80,000
acres of land, and the men are now at work upon
reservoirs which are to be filled during the non-lr-rlgatlng
seasons. The watered lands are being set
tled and are yielding abundant crops.
An Interesting situation is that of the Rio Grande
project, which is Just across the river from Mexico,
and as to which Mexico objected, as it diverts the
waters of the river which forms the boundary of
the two countries. This matter has been settled
by the reclamation service placing Its dam near the
station of Engle on the Santa Fe system, and agree
ing to give the republic of Mexico an annual supply
of 60,000 acre feet of water. The' reservoir which
will be made will have a capacity of about 2,500,000
acre feet, and it will Irrigate 180,000 acres. The
work Is already in progress there. A railroad has
been built from Engle to the dam site.
I
Some Pumping Projects.
In Nnplh llfllrnra f ha irnvnr.mnnt . a
pump the waier from floating barges In' the Missouri
river, using the cheap lignite coal which Is found
everywhere in that region. By this means it will
Irrigate the bench lands in the vicinity of Wllliston
and Trenton, ultimately reclaiming perhaps 20,000
acres. During the last year about 2,400 acres have
been Irrigated in this way.
In South Dakota the Belle Fourche project has
been 83 per cent completed. This is an Important
system, including a storage reservoir, an enormous
storage dam and a large canal. Thee project will
water 100,000 ac?es of land of which about half in
1 completed and the East Park dan there vlU store ''already, completed, FRANK O. CARPENTER, j
