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Show SET : 1 fAT SEVIER BRIDGE DAM AND RESERVOIR COMPLETED 1uial of the Deserct Irrigation company, which carries about one-half of the water released from tho reservoir. This canal supplies Oasis and .irrigation water. It is fifty miles below the dam. fc outlet of the big tunnel under tho Sevier bridge dam, discharging water under a forty-fivc-foot head. The tunnel is 13 feet vide and 8 ',$L dam and a portion of tho reservoir during the process of construction. Tho stono woll in tho foreground leads to the gates which regulate :ai water passing through the tunnel. ':JEb "Sevier bridge,'" from which the dam derives its name. The men on the bridge are the 250 teamsters who worked night and day on 3phg- the most exciting period last spring, when tho water was. rising over a foot a day, and the dam was uncompleted. rjfh'e whirlpool formed at the mouth of the discharge tunnel. It is about fifty feet from the top of tho dam and tlvreo and a half feet acrqss. e!left is W. R. Black, a director of the Descret Irrigation company. The one on the right is Prcdorick R. Lyman, president of the Mellvillc fcgpaay. m . rs- of i he most patient jjreach spring filled with Mo loss of thai work 3(fo"ne in previous years, "fiab and Millard ooun-JSjcompMcd ooun-JSjcompMcd the great Mm: and reservoir un-tBjte un-tBjte loan of about $50,-fcte $50,-fcte Land Board last iMcinl end of the work Hpfter bv two cornet corn-et and the Mellville JBics, while tho enci-Jpg enci-Jpg the past year, and frori that over half of done, has been mi- IjTervision of Dr. Ricli-. Ricli-. ,ead of llio department pf of the Vniversity rvoir will hold more the other reservoirs Hah at the present ut of laud the plant lost as largi' as that icrry valley project through by the gov- that came so nearly jring the high water md during the same ,-orc. It was to this Tilwere sent bv church jxjes in great haste to jce with tho water to jfitjvin out; the water ijjer the dam, and the and nighl trying tci Ql'astcr than the v,-ater fof Water, wuter season, the s some 2500 cubic Spfecond. The size of jb"eltor be understood Jat during the period Hyfas highest last spring. 'of the dam, which is .'Jejaud eight Ccct high, jthc water that a fflhead could drivo Who water in the reser-.Ujarcu reser-.Ujarcu of 12000 acres, i(a.t the tale of twelve )RTa day. jfUition existing; with Kfcomplctcd; with no jter except the tunnel, jalf dozen towns and am, it is not strange :Lyinan asked for all iClin attendance at the jtCQ in Millard stake to leave on the Sabbath day and hurry with their teams to save the dam. V this order had not boon given, the cities below the dam would have been washed away; tho railroad properl- in this vicinity would have been greatly damaged; all the bridges below the dam would have been torn out, and many well-to-do people would have been made not only poor, but homeless. home-less. But the dam is completed. No longer will there be sleepless nights for the farmers; and no longer need they fear that tho water will rise so "fast" as to carry the monstrous picco of work away. Dam Almost on County Line. The Sevier bridge dam is about half way between Juab in .Tnab county and Scipio in Millard county, and it is almost al-most on the line which divides those -counties from each other. The site of the dam is ideal. Years before the dam was built the site had been chosen as the best to be found along the river. The drop in I he river is small, so small that the water backs up nine miles. The low hills on either side of the valley made excellent retaining re-taining walls, while the point at which the dam is constructed is chosen because be-cause the walls seem to end here by joining with each other; the river hav-iug hav-iug cut its way through them. The dam is sixty-six feet high, with an average length of GOO feet. It impounds im-pounds 00.000 acre-feet of water in the reservoir, which has an area of .'1000 acres when tilled. The top of tho dam is about InOO feet long. It is over twelve feet wide at the top, so that two teams may readily read-ily pass each other without inconvenience. inconveni-ence. Represents Exporicncc of Years. For the last fifty ycars thc fanners of Millard and Juab counties along the Sovier river have built dams, so that the present dam really represents fifty years of experience combined with the most advanced engineering of the day. The material which has entered into I he dam is of the best character possible possi-ble for earthen dams. It was laid down in six-inch layers, each alternate layer consisting of a fine elny and a pea-grain pea-grain gravel. The earth was pressed down by the wagons as they drove over it, and further it was allowed lu pack, is it took several days to put down even a thin layer, so large was the cinm. 'J'.'ie front of tho dam has a slope of three to one. while the back or side not exposed to the water has a slope of one ami a half to one. The front of the dam has been further protected by a six-inch la3er of stone, carefully laid b' hand. Channels in Rock. Tho water is allowed 1o pass the dam through two ' different channels, both cut in solid rock, so that no danger dan-ger from washouts will be possible. The one passageway is a tunnel cut through tho hasr of a hill which is used as part of the dam. The other is a spillway 100 feet wide also cut in solid rock , several hundred feet northwest of the j eri;i of the dam. Tho rapacity of this spillway is such, it, is believed, that with tin' Jarge tunnel open, this spillway spill-way could safely carry all of the water which would come clown the river if all the reservoirs on the Sevier river above this one should go out at once. The reservoir, of course, only represents repre-sents the storage of so much water, but before the water can be placed upon the land for which it is intended, irrigating systems must bo constructed and improved. The two companies that own the dam aro the Deserct Irrigation Irriga-tion company and the Mellvillc Irriga- ' tion company. Make up of Companies. The officers of the Descret company are: William '. Pratt, president; W. It. Black, L. It. Cropper. .John C. Webb, Lars Hansen, and William A. Itoeve. The officers of the Mellvillc company are: Frederick It. Lyman, president; David It. Stevens, Edgar W. Jcffcry, Samuel Bennett and William E. Jtobiu-sou. Jtobiu-sou. The Descret companj' is the older of the two. Alone and unaided b' outside out-side capital, the farmers of the two counties organized this company and began the dam. The water is held in the dam and released as needed. It ; flows down from tho Sevief river, whore, some fifty miles away from the dam, it is cauglit by a small dam and diverted in the company's canal, shown in tho cut. This canal supplies the water for tho beautiful fanning district dis-trict around Oasis and Hinckley. The work of tho Descret company is now complete, and the land which they intended in-tended to open up is ready for water. Will Build Waterways. The Mellvillc company was organized a littlo over a year ago. Its land has not been touched with water. Its work is not completed with 'tho construction of tho Sevier bridge dam. A largo cannl has already been completed, but to raise the water from the river at a point near the Deserct company's dam, i it will be necessary to put "a small dam acroso tho river. Sovoral sub-canals sub-canals are also to be constructed. The dam, tho new canals that are being constructed, and tho other parts of the irrigation system will cost the people of Millard and Juab counties no less than 6250,000, but it is estimated esti-mated that the system is renlly worth ten times this amount, or $2,500,000. Only those who have traveled through Millard county and have seen the ouormous tracts of level desert land can appreciate what it means to this district to have this quantitv of water available for irrigation. IiJxperts recently re-cently said of this land that in tho whole United States there is none bet-or bet-or than that to be treated in Millard county by this water. The soil is a heavy loamy clay, covered with a most vigorous growth of grease wood. The Innd, it is said, will be a littlo hard to subdue; but once put in good farming condition, it, will be everlasting. everlast-ing. Will Reclaim Many Acres. On this heavy soil one or one and one-half feet of water should bo enough to mature- tho averago crop. With such a use of water, this reservoir reser-voir will make potisiblu the reclamat'iort of from 70,000 to 90,000 acres of land. All the ordinary grains and other crops can be raised on this soil, but it .'looms that tho crops that nro most successful suc-cessful arc the alfalfa ruid sugar bceL All who have been in any way connected con-nected with this great enterprise uro I "xpecting Jin unprecedented boom in I Millard county in the immediato future. bo great is tho faith of somo persons , in this project no enlarged, that oven now, before tho water is turned upon tho land or the canals finished, tho town of Mcllvillo has been laid out, the streets grubbed and cleaned, flowing wells driven some houses built, and many hundreds of acres have boon ploughed au cleared read to receive the seed. Among those who have taken a great interest in this enterprise outside of the Millard county people are President Francis M. Lyman, Judge William U. King, Senator Thomas f f'allister and .Tames Mellvillc. After tho last, named the town of Mollville has been called. But the project is one planned and completed by a group of Millard county stalwarts that have been on the ground and at the work all the time. It is the presence and effort of such men that makes this undertaking differ very widely from those devised and carried out by capitalists or promotors. These mon are working for tho people in their own neighborhood first; yet at the. same time thby also anticipate that in so doing they are making it possible for thousands outside of their own county to make comfortable and prosperous homes for themselves. Those Who Worked Hard. President William F. Pratt of the Descret Irrigation company has always been on tho ground in times of worry and excitement during the years that this work has been only partially finished. President Fred It. Lyman of tho Mellvillc Irrigation company has need his good sense and judgment all alone tho line to mako this project, successful. suc-cessful. It was he who originated the plan for getting the necessary means to carry on the work. He has been to this work what Franklin waB to tho devolution. Another who has done much work on tho dam is Will Reuben Black of Descret. who has been in charge of the work at all times during the process of construction. Only once during the trying times did he appear down-hearted, and that was after he had responded twice cheerfully cheer-fully during the black hours of the night to the call of the watchman for hell). It wns JC following morning, when he thought, his followers from Descret wore not coining to hip assistance as-sistance in sufficient numbers, that he was compelled to admit that he was discouraged. dis-couraged. Not only have the directors of the company felt, this responsibility, but every man in the two counties has displayed dis-played tho same deep concern and interest in-terest in the progress of tho work. Tho final completion of the dam cannot be appreciated more by those directly responsible re-sponsible for its construction than it is by the men who worked shoulder to shoulder during the trying period when the water rose to destroy their work, and they, in turn, fought to save their property, their homes and their lives. |