Salt Lake Tribune | 1913-06-16 | Page 12 | What Snake River Means to All Idaho

WHAT SNAKE RIVER MEISTOALL IDAHO Electric Power Facilities of Stream Are Just Becoming Appreciated. The Snake river Is to Idaho what the Nile Is to Egypt. From Its source In the vicinity or the National park, the Snako river follows Its sinuous course across the southern part of the state, at times lost between thc perpendicular walls of deep canyons, pouring its great volumes In falls of indescribable beauty and Incalculable power, forming the boundary line between Idaho and two adjoining states, It at last turns abruptly to the west at Lewlston, In north Idaho, and finally joins the Columbia as It moves onward to the sea. The Snake river Is ono of Idaho's greatest assets. ItG waters havo trans- formed the sagebrush desert Into a verit-able verit-able garden and made homes for thousands thou-sands of liappy, contented and prosperous prosper-ous people. And the work of reclaiming the desert Is still In Its Infancy. The waters of tho Snake river and its tributaries tribu-taries will go on making homes In Idaho for thc overflow from the crowded east. But there Is another benefit from tho Snake river which has hardly begun to bo realized. Thc possibilities In the way of electric power development are beyond computation. The many falls and rapids afford ideal conditions for tho Installation Installa-tion of power plant-, and oven now tho cheapness of electric development has resulted re-sulted In the utilization of electricity on the Irrigated tracts to a greater extent than In any other part of the west. Already Al-ready electrically heated houses are common com-mon and It seems only a question of a few years when It will be utilized generally gen-erally for heating and cooking purposes and tho entire Irrigated tract will be a network of electric railways. Wallace Miner.