OCR Text |
Show LEHI FREE PRESS. LEHI. UTAH SOULDER DAM PROJECT BECOMES REALITY v j C. UTLEY daia i read to begin within about a operation month' time. The gigantic projwt, one of the mightiest engineering Jobs ever undertaken bj man, once the subject of thousands cf columns cf comment throughout tbe land, baa been all but forgotten with the new Interest that have attracted public attention the depression, the New Deal and others, but for five years since the undertaking was begun In 1930. 5,0u) workers have tolled night and day until now the great dam Is a reality. The project Is costing America $1CV 000,000 and other projects directly associated with It account for another $230,000,000. With the Job so little removed from completion, engineers of the bureau of reclamation pronounce It ready to eliminate the two great dangers confronting the territory which it serves. They are the mad,, deadly floods of the giant Colorado river and the parching drouths caused by lack of Irrigation. When entirely completed, the dam will also furnish power to generate more electrical energy than any other water power development In S By WILLIAM Dei.ar ' k i- - I sufficient water for the operation of the power bouse, which will be tiiisl.ej about, July 1, with five of the seventeen generating units Installed, the rest to be put In over a period of a few years. The greatest of these units, to be the largest of its kind In use anywhere, will generate 11 ', horse power. Built In the shaje of a horse shoe, with wiu?s 025 feet long and the side against the dam 3J0 feet wide, the power house will be the seat of one more of the federal government's numerous ventures Into the electric light and power business of late. . Unlike the TV'A and other projects, business outlook is particularly good here, for all of the power has been contracted for In advance. Infine from the sale of electrical energy Is expected to exceed JT.miO.OoO a year. The water In the reservoir will be ready long before the machinery. The four Intake towers through which the water enters the power plant, checkered In design, at the principal contrast to the broad white expanse of the dam Itself, which rises In a great triangle from the bottom of the canyon. To assure obtaining of clear water, 's they begin 2"0 feet above the bed, and will extend 3S0 feet above. World of Caverns. With no water running over the top, the face of the dam on the downstream side elopes. In a steep and graceful curve, bracing Itself against the weight of the tremendous wall of water on the other side. ' ' Internally, the dam la a magic subterranean world of caverns, boring their way Into the nigged mountain C'olo-radn- s' a m .v.... t x 3tv There will still be flnds on the Colorado, but now they can be held in check to a s ze that will net get beyond control. Probably no flow now will ever be more than 4SMJ cubic feet a second cubic feet a below the daw 6D-- S5. second farther down the river, lu the irrigated sections. Irrigation Most Important Of all the operations of the u.im. Irrigation was perhaps held the nist imimrtant by the lawtuakt-r- s who appropriated th uTiey for its construction. Although the aver;i'e flow of the cubic feet a second, Colorado Is irj. this dropped oft to a mere trickle of 1.7UJ cubic feet this year. Such a failure of water supply was the cause of almost irreparable losses In the fertile fields of the InipTlal valley. The pity of it Is that when the water of the river fails, that Is Just the time It Is most needed for Irrigation. Had as witch water been stored last spring as will be next, this loss would have been almost entirely wljied out, in the opinion of engineers. Now the flood time waters will be arrested and held until the parched months of July and AugnsL During the summer months the U:itn will permit the passage of about 10,(HH) cubic feet of water per second into the valleys below, holding the wintertime Bow to about 4,(KHI cubic feet ' Another constant threat to agriculture has been the large amounts of mud and silt carried down from the mountains by the Colorado. Much of this silt was deposited in irrigation ditches where water to revive thirsty vegetation was sorely needed. It has been estimated that 300 tons of silt a minute were curried through the Black canyon where Boulder dam was situated. Removal of the silt deposits cost the farmers a pretty penny. Now the hue basin behind the dam will catch most of the silt Twenty-fou- r hours a day, seven days a week, the crews are at work to bring all these benefits to the area served by Uie dam. a t - i I I River Harnessed at Boulder Dam. the country, 1,735,000 horse power. It will become the source of water supply for several large cities, notably Los Angeles. Even more Interested than Los Angeles In the Hearing of the end Is the third largest city of Nevada, Boulder City. Built In the desert, six miles from the dam Itself, for the homes of the employees and their families, Its population of approximately 6,000 souls will begin to dwindle until probably only the ghost of this comparative metropolis win remain when all the work Is over. Rising like a gargantuan monument from the bed of the Colorado up the steep mountain sides, Boulder dam Is already the highest dam In the world, by far, although workmen will still be busy completing the top of It when It begins operation. TaNer than any west of Manhattan, with the possible exception of one or two In Chicago, lttowers B84 feet above the bottom of Black canyon. When the reservoir Is filled a building would merely poke the tip of Its tower above the surface of the water. Seen In the perspective of the lofty penks that cleave the clouds above the dam, It would seem as the tip of a reed that grar.es the bottom of your boat In a fishing pond. Huge Artificial Lake. So puge Is the reservoir that will form one of the world's largest artificial lakes, it will take three years to AIL It will be 125 miles long, with a chore line of more than 500 miles, and will cover 227 square miles. At present the canyon above the dam Is being cleaned out la preparation for the creation of the lake. Leaving the canyon forever are a railroad, an old concrete mixing plant and a large camp. The Colorado Is one of the most temperamental and Inconsistent rlvera In the United States. It drains approxiof the country, mately yet Its flow varies from less than 2,000 cubic feet a second at the lowest period to an high of 210,000 cubic feet a second. The flow now Is about 4,500. It will not be until the spring floods that the reservoir In back of the dam begins to fill up. , While the dam has been built, engineers have diverted the flow of the Colorado around the project by means of artificial river beds cleft through the mountains. One of these tunnels carries the whole flow now, but at times four are needed. They cannot oil be shut down at once to begin building np the reservoir, because much of the water Is needed for the Irrigation of the Yuma and Imperial valleys. When the needs of Irrigation have been met, gates being built In the a diversion tunnel will return the surplus to the reservoir. The three diversion tunnels are 60 feet In diameter. Two of them have been filled with plugs of concrete 850 to 400 feet long. When the river, ha,s risen to a height of 260 feet, the third channel, whlen contains gates to regulate the flow, will follow the permanent structures, huge pipelines 30 feet In diameter. It win he June o- - tuly before there la sides of volcanic rock cast up from In prehistoric days. Entrance to the tunnels Is effected through a g of heroic proportions. Here Is the first of the piping that will feod water to the turbines. From this Jhe water, rushing with all the force of 'Its long fall, enters the power house through secondary pipes 13 feet In diameter. Never has a construction Job been speeded so swiftly. More than 3,000,-00- 0 cubic yards of concrete have been poured from the huge 10 ton buckets In strips S feet high. It Is nearly a year and a half ahead of schedule, the contractor says. Gone now fs the terror of the flood periods of the Colorado. Each of the two spillways of Boulder dam could accommodate a rush of water of a vol- - craters cave-openin- 30-fo- At the finish of their day's labors, the workers return to spotless, cheery homes In a city that sprang like a mirage In the desert It Is Boulder City, six miles from the dam. The federal government, because It owns all the land, makes all the rules for the Inhabitants. Those rules are Interpreted largely b? the government's efficient city manager. Sims Ely. Efficiently Managed. The city manager Issues all the business permits In the city, and no one can enter business without a permit There are neither too few business houses for prosperity nor too many. Mr. Ely has allowed two of a kind to come Into the city at a time, in order to keep down prices through competition, always a sound plan in the era of ex President Herbert Hoover, for whom the dam Is sometimes called. The number of business concerns are held down to what Is necessary to supply the needs of the community. Visitors cannot merely come and go In Boulder City like In other towns. United States marshals keep out all but those who have passes. This reduces crime, for undesirable persons never get a chance to commit crimes they don't get In. There has been only one crime In all Boulder City's history, a hold-up- . Its perpetrators were under sentence Inside of two weeks. Transient visitors who appear to be law-abld- " - wrsr .i .a. v. :. v $t. I,-- - ' 4 r - ? ?irA 9 , 1 View Looking Down Stream From ths Crest of Boulder Dam. ume -- ! -. . ' ; ' . ; d ft NcnDr Unioa. ," J " I, by National 0.orah!e PrPr Nt briA.ce. Washington. U. C Po-l- tr. i AMERICAN KKt wrote: -Dark flying rune against th western Klw "d loneI1' It tells the nesa of things other The writer of these lines and from the Inspiration have drawn poets formations that especially Striking swans, characterize the movements of geese and ducks. line That Hying wedge or undulating the or sunset sky etched against the high formation orderly, overhead! Here is the symbol that of even the Inspires the imagluation the poets has It as casual observer, ilJ owl who have written f flying the ages. through of glamour and Behind this aui life story the fascinating lies mystery of the majestic wild swans, the wily geese, the hardy and adaptable ducks, mergansers. They and the are a fairly compact and homogeneous of group of birds, their only relatives screamthe undoubted connection being ers of South America, large, goose-like- , wading birds with unwebbed toes. Geese and ducka are found all over the world wherever water exists, except on the oceans far from land. Common to the order are a long neck, sometimes vary long; short lej;s. webbed toes, and a bill covered with sensitive skin and provided inside with comblike structures known as lamellae, modified in the mergansers to sharp "teeth" for holding slippery fish. The eggs are without markings, and the young, hatchec covered with down, are able to find their own food very soon after they er.ers:e from the egg. swans, The graceful, snow-whit- e sometimes five feet In length, make up the first of seven subfamilies into which are divided the North American -f fP swift-movin- g fish-lovl- members of the suborder. The other six are the geese, tree ducks, surface-feedinducks, diving ducks, ducks, and mergansers. g stiff-taile- d Highly Esteemed. Much that has been written about swans has been' influenced by their aesthetic appeal. This is apt to dis tort the facts to their advantage, and It Is just as well, because no other birds can provide the thrill that a flock of wild swans gives the nature lover. First In order and In size, they have a form too universally known to require description. The two North American species are so similar that they can he differentiated with certainty only by the character of their internal structure and by their very distinct voices. The swans are perfect models of conjugal conduct. They mate for life and the sexes share the domestic reSwans sponsibilities. The downy young when first hatched are not the "ugly ducklincs" of popular belief, but lovely little creatures, clothed In silky, golden down and without the exaggerated neck and huge paddlelike feet of their parents. Very soon, however, these characteristics begin to appear and ungainliness replaces their natal loveliness until the grace and beauty of maturity appear. Fortunately, there Is small If any possibility of the extermination of the whistling swan, and with careful con servation it may even be possible to perpetuate the trumpeter. The goose family is well represented in North America, especially In the West, where In some localities six species may be seen on the same ground. Their extraordinary migrations and the mystery of their breeding grounds Intensify the Interest that both sportsmen and naturalists take In these fine birds. Even yet. there are a few whose summer homes are unknown, while the systematic status of some races and their relation to each other have still to be worked out. Much study In the field, especially at their nesting grounds, Is required to establish these facts. Geese, like swans, pair for life, and the young birds remain In the company of their parents for nearly a year after tney are natcned. Geese Are Smart Birds. Endowed with keen Intelligence and extreme wanness, they can be depended on to maintain a fair degree of abundance as long as adequate wintering grounds are afforded them But above all, they, like swans, require freedom from molestation when they are at rest, so that a large measure of solitude and wide spaces are the chief requirements for their perpetu atlon. than w.th In M ffllCA.. a tit Bpyinr "anted produrtt k lit. tor tha wraac baskrt. LErS PATRONIZE HOME mr 1.NDISTH ducks. bv day or Light, ;eese do when miof lot calling while In flight ; of clamor the overhead grating high their voices falling from the sky draws attention to the Hock in arrowhead formation, cleaving the upper air. Species can be identified by their different voices. When feeding they are silent each other In only gabbing a little to low tones. The first appearance of danger will bring a warning challenge from the sentinel and every head is erected while the danger Is scrutinized. Both geese and swans are noted for their longevity, the latter being among the Methuselahs of the bird world. There ls actual record of a mute swan that lived seventy years, while rather uncertain report has attributed even a greater age to the birds. between Intermediate Somewhat ducks and geese are the tree ducks. They have only two representatives States north of the Mexico-Uniteboundary, and neither of these penetrates much to the north of this line. Their name Is misleading In our own territory, as here we seldom see them perching In trees and their nests are on the ground. The great group of ducks Is divided Into two main sections, the surface-feedinand diving ducks. While these names actually afford a general basis of distinction, It does not follow that surface-feeder- s never dive for their food, nor that diving ducks never feed on the surface. To separate the groups, look at the foot. In the diving ducks, the hind toe has a lobe, so that It resembles a little paddle. In tho surface feeding group It ls not particularly specialized How to Identify Ducks. Whether g THIS WEEK'S PRIZE wish to Identify the ducks they shoot In all plumages, It is essential that they recognize the distinction between the two groups. By the "hind toe" formula, ducks fall under the category of diving ducks, but In many features of structure, plumage, and life characters they are further removed from true ducks than are the mergansers. The sometimes pugnacious and somewhat ludicrous-appearinruddy duck is the sole representative of the ducks in the United States and Canada, although a South American species, the masked duck, has been twice recorded In the eastern states as a straggler. Mergansers, the last of the duck group, are ducks with a narrow, specialized bill, edged with saw teeth, which enable them to catch and devour fish. Their feet, though proportionately smaller, resemble those of the diving ducks In having a paddle-shape- d hind toe. Ducks, for the most part, are very different from swans and geese in their family habits. While they pair much like other birds and are not as a rile polygamous or polyandrous, the male in most species is not a constant husband, and abandons the female and all family cares as soon as Incubation of the eggs Is' well under way. stiff-taile- g stiff-taile- good-size- d Stiff-taile- d ducks are notable exceptions to tills rule, and In some true ducks, like the elders, the male Is not altogether Indifferent to his family obligations Labrador Duck Is Extinct Mention should be made of the extinct Labrador duck, Camptorhynchus labradorins, the last verified record of which was a bird taken In 1S75. The passing of this species Is a trys-ter- y which cannot be accounted from the earliest days for which we have any record of the bird. It was a scarce species in the limited area of Its range on the North Atlantic coast Frequenting the shoal water of the shallow bays, it could not have been In much demand for food and few were brought in to the markets. There is no record of its nesting, nor even, with f lts ""me. was a diving duck, the peculiar shape of its bill suggests sifted Its food In shallow water that it Of all the questions owl. the problem of their perjetuat Ion Is the most Important. naturally takes an Interest In Jhelr servatlon and wishes to see nntnerease n their numbers. R.,t unfortunately there are two divergent schools at work one thn, fowl from the viewpoint that sport, and the opposite the, ThTt insists they be protected vl gronn 'y all shooting be abolished. S For the good of the wild .'"w . North America. It fjr-eve- Z 'Tu n mm . tha oilmen, and . STORT Give ta your state the beat job And the beat will rome bark to tare wealth and wealth to jour kuei flew Ta help yoa In your need. Spend at home and prosperity will Kigiit where you do thie deed. For our state b what we make It, It's jut what wa are and do. Then (ire to your state the best yoi And tho best will come beck ta yea. sin ki K yo can trust yonr next door Bfitnler When all the world is full of dread ui donbt. If you can do a little extra labor And yet not be too ready to shout. If briefly you can boost for lnttrmoMtii, Whether skies be rroy or blue and flu. Why man, yonr faith Is like a fountaii. Of co one you know good timet are Bitty near. RUBY NIELSEN. Gunnison. Um. EXCELCIS BEAUTY SCHOOL ENROLL NOW: Learn modern beaalj culture pleasant, profitable work. Ii. celcis, known nationally, offers you uunr For free catalog givini advantages. full particulars, address EXCELCIS BEAUTY SCHOOL 211 So. W. Temple Salt Lake Gtj Many Gifts Rejected For many years the Smithsonian Institute has been oblifred to reject gifts freely offered by citizens. The space available for the display of material was exhaused long' ago, and a condition of overcrowd, ing has been the distinguishir.? characteristic of the institution for several decades. At 400 Utah Oil If sportsmen greater than the ordinary flow lng citizens are given passes over Niagara falls. This Is necessary, which may be renewed. for when the river reached Its peak The city manager was appointed by flood flow of 210,000 cubic feet a sec- the secretary of the Interior, and was ond 30 years ago, laying waste vast formerly associated with the developareas In the wild antics of Its most ment of tne Santa Fe compact for the wanton spree, It was more destructive allocation of water from the Colorado In Its rage than even a Niagara turned river. He Is a kindly southerner, and loose to batter the countryside at ranIt Is his kindliness, as well as his repudom. Now California's rich Imperial tation for wisdom and fair dealing, valley, lying below the level of the which has. earned for hlra a respect river end further protected by levees, seldom accorded a man by his fellow may rest In relief from Its age-olfear. cltiEens. The latter are frequently to Floods are caused by the melting be found In his office, where they come snows on the many mountains of the to him for advice In the settlement of region. After the record break of 1000, their family Both families have a lower rate problems. It la said that of these different view. h. It took 18 months of labor on a vast he has prevented many divorces by his reproduction than ducks, as they re- a concerted courw nt scale and the expenditure of f2,000,000 several to quire years attain attention and wise counsel, to return the river to Its rightful bed, patient and tl.e tutr.boi f Pcg3 a,d maturity ls Weitcrm 24-ho- ":,- Geese in the Shaduw of the Pyramids. . all-tim- e Ne-vad- ' l" A r r V ir 'I' j Sally Sez (j EESEcDUCKS T : I Xpjzi ea J Refining Service Stations in Utah and Idaha Decorations for Cake The wedding cakes of brides la Bermuda are sometimes decorated with seedlings of native Bermuda cedar trees, and these the brida plants at the gateway of her ne home. Many of these trees ml be seen at the entrances of tin older houses on the island. New Zealand's Climate New Zealand possesses an Usually healthy climate. us Wouldn't YOU Like Hens Like These? Hens Owned by 18 H. F. Tucker, Murray. 12 mos. UU 25 R. W. Clark, Am. Fork, 12 mos. 739! 1S 27 F. J. Perry, Provo, 12 mos. 70 Hens 12 months' time Mr! Average production, 283.6 eggs per per year. Average weight of eggs, over 26 ounea per dozen in first yer of production. Profits depend on Production, nJ on Breeding: and Livability. mm Tho blood of these flows through Bamshaw and Timpnoi chicks. Their sons and brothers tmi otto male birds of the same blood lines, hatt headed our breeding flocks for ye White leghorns, most heavy wietiB, and .sexed chicks. A copy of our 19S5 price list and aescn tlve literature ia yours for the ask" RAMSHAW HATCHERIES C. C. No. Salt Lake City TIMPANOG08 HATCHERY j C. C. No. Prove, Utah Tables From the tables which w made to eat off of, furmtor makers swung to special purpo31 duty, pieces and those for double the and g such as the gate-leous types of drop-leave- 3 and increasing the number styles as the culture of the peoP" advanced. $3.00 rHrS? - Intermountain made Gocds to above. Send your stor in P""V. eria to Intermountain ProdocU nmn P fi HH Sail Lake Citf- - " year story, appears in this column you will re ceive check fot .. $3.00 No It. R. Line Needed " A railroad line connecting United States and Alaska v be expensive to build, a limited amount of traffic must be served is taken " ' by the several steamship " which operate between Seattle Alaskan ports. . Cave Ornaments u Besides the stalactites ana lagmites formed vertically in by the dripping of water, etZ the less frequent helectites are spiral. |