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Show STRAWBERRY TUNNEL GATES THROWN OPEN Water Now Pouring Through the Wasatch Mountains on Its Way to Thirsty Lands. IMPORTANT EVENT IN HISTORY OF WEST No Special Ceremony Marks the Epoch; Engineer Lytel, Who Built Big Tunnel, Officiates. By C. J. BL AN CHARD, Statistician of the United States Reclamation Rec-lamation Service. Special to The Tribune. THISTLE, Sopt. 13. Tho waters of the Pacific drainage slope will be wedded wed-ded to the great interior basin by 0 o'clock Sunday morning. At 2 o'clock this afternoon tho gates of tho east portal of the great Strawberry tunnel were partly oponcd to obtain the first run of water from the reservoir and to test all the controlling works and machinery. At 2:55 o'clock a wall of water rushed through the west portal, four mile3 distant, and plunged down the steep mountain side. In its mad flight it carried inassos of debris, uprooted trees and quickly caused a stcop-walled canyon. The estimatod discharge of water was 518,000 cubic inches a second. sec-ond. From tho west portal to Utah lake tho distance is about thirty-flve miles, so that the wator from the Strawberry reservoir should reach the great interior basin, of which the lake is a part, early tomorrow morning. No Special Ceremony. No special ceremony marked tho ovent, . one of the most important in the history of the United States reclamation recla-mation service. Project Engineer J. L. Lytel, tho man who has directed the boring of the great hole through tho mountains and the building of tho canals which will carry life-giving water wa-ter to thousands of acres of Utah 'b rapidly diminishing desort, opened tho gates. Ho was assisted by S. W. Cator, assistant engineer, and O. J. Blanchard, statistician of the sorvico, with headquarters head-quarters in Washington, D O. Others present for the momorablo event wero Fiscal Agent J, L. Segal, Assistant Engineers En-gineers W. M, Iieoso, L. M. Hammond and O. O. Tretton, and William Schurtz, E. T. Bush and R. E. Lampon. Origin of the Idea. The divorting of the waters of tho Strawberry river into Utah valley was first . suggostod by the officials of the Spanish Fork East Bench Irrigation company in 1902. Aftor tho matter was talked over the scheuio was declared de-clared visionary and boyond tho possibilities possi-bilities of expectation or accomplishment. accomplish-ment. Theso men wore not satisfied with setting aside their dream, however, how-ever, so they secured tho sorvioos of Frank O. Koeloy, a Salt Lake engineer. Ho made a preliminary survey and, on the strength of his report, the water was llled upon for irrigation purposes. In 1004 a committoo of farmers in the vallov was appointed to confer with the Utah representatives in congress, and through the efforts of the commit-too commit-too the interior department at Washington Wash-ington was Interested and surveys were ordorod. At the sumo time, application was made to tho secretary of tho in-torior in-torior for permission to locate a reservoir reser-voir sito in Strawberry valley, tho request re-quest being readily granted. Thus tho machinery of tho reclamation service was first applied to this dream, which became a reality yesterday whon the waters of the Strawborry rushed through the very heart of the Wasatch range and into the groat interior basin which is without outlot to either ocean. Means Much to Utah. This groat irrigation project is expected ex-pected to add to the wealth of Utah county two or three times the cost of tho undertaking. Upwards of 00,000 ncres of the moBt fortilo land In tho west will be rodeomed from tho .tenacious .tenaci-ous sagebrush, aud made to produoe tho abnndanco that is necessary for a happy and contontod people. After the government gov-ernment took up the mattor of boring a watorway through tho mountain, the Strawberry Vallov Wator Users association asso-ciation watt orgaulzed and incorporated undor tho laws of tho state, with a capital cap-ital stock of '50,000 shares. Remarkable progress has been made since the work bogan. Besides tho boring of tho big tunnel, upward b of forty miles of d vorsion and latoral canals have been dug. Whilo this work is all boing done by tho government, tho land ownors to be benofltod will, of necessity, according accord-ing to the law, repay tho amount in installments. in-stallments. All of tho land undor the system and whioh is to receive tho wator wa-tor has boon pledged to tho government to securo the payment of the coot of tho project. From tho figures given .(Continued on Page Eleven.) I P H?pHR nf f th6;vcf end of th Strawberry tunnel, where a mighty wall of water I Ino of the Pacific drainage slope into the great intermountain basin. - lira PROJECT ants ie ophed (Continued from Pago Ono.) out by C. .T. Blanch ard, statistician United States reclamation scrvico, tho government has already expended $65,-500,000 $65,-500,000 in engineering projects in the eighteen arid and semi-arid, states, which, when completed, will provide homes for moro than 50,000 families on farms of their own. It is estimated that the Strawberry project, "will provide pro-vide for at least 2060 families, in addition addi-tion to those now living in the region to bo covered. Great Dam Is Built. The dam across the Strawberry river, to conserve the wator, is seventy-one feet high, earth filled with concrete core walls, the up-stream face paved with stone. The dam was completed a year ago. Tho Indian Creek dyke, which is thirty-seven feet high, 1-J00 feet long, is of the same construction and material as the dam proper. The capacity of the Strawberry dam and reservoir will be 275,000 acrc-fcot, covering an erca of 8200 acres of ground. Tho waters of Strawborry river and Indian creek can bo hoarded and conserved, and as the necessity for it for irrigating purposes comes it can bo turned into tho diversion canal, which carries it to tho tunnel. Work Begun in 1905. The reclamation service began its actual work on tho project in 1905, and in October, 190(3, work on the tunnel from tho oast portal was started. At this time George L. SwenBon, district engineer for the reclamation service, was in charge In January, 1907, on tho resignation of Swenson, J. L. Lytel look charge and was mado project engineer engi-neer tho following May. lie has had charge- of tho work since that timo. Until the wintor of .1909 W. D. Beers, now state engineer in Utah, was one or tho field engineers for the government upon tho project and assisted in much of tho pionoor work. In addition to marking the completion comple-tion of a great project, the turning of tho water into tho basin of Great Salt lako ib nolablo as being the firstgov-ernment firstgov-ernment project ever complotod in Utah. Tho waters of tho Pacific drainage, of which tho Strawberry river is a part, aro now turned into a basin whoro there is no outlet to either ocean. Big Boom Assured. Tho fortilo lands in tho southern ond of Utah county which will now come under tho magic spell of irrigation, are almost all adaptod to fruit growing. Utah county has been specializing in fruit for several years past, and this is oxpected to be n Dig impetus to tho extension ex-tension of hoticulturo in tho valley. Almost simultaneously with tho completion com-pletion of tho project is tho operation of electric cars between Salt Lako and Provo, tho Orcm road. Thcso cars will 1)0 running as far as Provo by January 1, and as soon as this lino is complotod, the construction gangs will begin laying track to Payson, tho very heart of tho district to be irrigated by tho Strawberry Straw-berry waters. With such development tho southern end of Utah county promises prom-ises to oxperionco a boom in the next two years that is unequalod in tho annals an-nals of ono of tho richest valleys of tho intermountain west. |