Show BIG ELECTRIC POWER PROJECT post parker arizona there is a project afoot to build a dam feet high that will store the waters of the colorado river in grand canyon and develop horsepower which is more than the estimated energy of niagara the plan holds in its scope the utilization of this vast motive force in the up building of the great southwest at practically 25 per cent of the present cost of power on the coast the project would immerse fifty five miles of the scenic wonders of the grand canyon under a placid lake that would discharge cubit feet of water per second with a drop of feet the men in charge of the project are irving E bush a mining engineer of rialto california and thomas fellows a los angeles architect and engineer their plans call for the expenditure of and they are ard trying to raise that sum to put them into operation they say they have the promise of foreign capital the site f for or the proposed dam is in northern arizona close to the nevada border it is at a spot where the rainbow colored gorge is only feet wide A granite intrusion cuts the formation there and makes a solid barrier that the tumbling waters have been unable to erode to a greater width the laurentian rib of the granite forms the wings of the dam and all that is needed is a breast of masonry and concrete to shut oft off the waters of the colorado that in centuries of time have worn away the barrier nature set there the walls of the canyon at the po point int se lecter for the dam rise feet above the high water mark of the river and a dam feet high would submerge the canyon to that level for a distance of fifty five miles and provide the greatest single water power in the world it is claimed by the promoters that this electrical power at less than one fourth the cost now being paid in coast cities would form the basis for an industrial district that would surpass the city of pittsburg and at the same time supply power to california nevada and arizona mines that would unlock countless millions in the low grade ores that cannot now be worked at a profit because of the high cost of fuel and power besides it is claimed that the waste waters could be sluiced for irrigation purposes in the arid districts thus making fertile millions of acres that are now desert haunts of the coyote and the horned toad the fifty five mile lake to be formed by this dam will average more than a mile in width and will have an average depth of feet all of its course is over wild and uninhabitable country where there is nothing to be destroyed by the enterprise except scenery beyond the vague statement that foreign capital was interested there was no actual announcement as to whom the project would take form or whether plans for such a gigantic massing of the waters of the colorado would meet the approval of the government authorities |