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Show ! WILD RIVER TAMED Diverted Through Mountain to t Give Power and Irrigation. V "". Concrete Tunnel Six Miles Long Is Completed After Four Years 1 of Work at a Cost of About $4,000,000. Denver. When President Tail touches n button In this city the roaring roar-ing waters of the Gunnison river will bo halted In their flight down an unexplored, unex-plored, Immemorial canyon and will bo turned by tho cunning sclcnco of puny men straight Into the heart of a 2,000-foot 2,000-foot mountain. Tho wild river will plungo through six miles of concrete tunnel, tho first parUof .Is turning. It will emergo in tho Uncompahgro valley val-ley only half conquorod, still full of Btrength and mad deflanco at tho arti ficial bounds put upon Its power. A series of "drops" will weaken It to the extent of 10,000 electrical horse- J powor. It will bo free of tho dark j tunuel, but still conllned within tho banks of a 12-mllo canal of greater size than tho Erie canal. Racing down " tho canal, the humbled waters will bo gradually dlvortcd and spread out until un-til they bocomo tiny streams nnd trick-Ung trick-Ung brooks, Irrigating 150,000 ncres of ch agricultural land. A giant' of-tho Rockies will bo subdued and will I chango Its ages-long occupation of carving granite to providing moisture and bloom for a wilderness. . Tho Uncompahgro project, ranking third among tho great reclamation en-, en-, terprlses of tho government, Is the I , Hrst to approach completion. It Is ! the most spectacular If not tho great est Irrigation enterprise in tho world. j Tho estimated cost of construction is , Tunnel Through Which Gunnison Rlvei Will Hereafter Rush. toward $1,000,000. It was nudacious to proposo shooting a full grown river through a mountain. Enormous dlfll cultles have been met and conquered in making that subterranean channol for tho river Blnco tho beginning of , tho work, four years ugo. It was comparatively easy to work 1 at the west bIiIo of tho tunnel. The slope- of tho mountain towards tho Uncompahgro valloy is gentle, but on tho Gunnison sido It was nccosary to build a wagon road leading Into the frightful canyon, where tho work at , the cast portal was started. This ' ( road is 1C miles long, and in some places rises 23 foot in evory 100 foot. . Down this road hoavy machinery was ' - hauled, and tho matorlalB for build t Tjf Ing n town of workers at tho portal ' - Tremendous flows of wator oncoun " tared In digging tho tunnel added to tho diincultios. Tho water going down ' -j grade with tho slopo of tho tunnel had " to bo pumped out at tho rate of 000,000 ,' ' - gallons a day. Subtorranoan lakes wore tapped, and when the drills penotrated h,v tho wator a stream 40 feet In length would shoot out through tho hole, ; ' knocking tho men away from tho air ? drills, and even knocking the "muck- . i " ers" off tho tram cars. Hot water was encountorcd at times, raising the tern- poraturo of tho tunnel to such an extent ex-tent that the minors woro compelled to work almost naked. At one tlmo a hoavy flow of carbon dioxide, or choke - damp, caused tho workers to run for v their lives, many narrowly escaping ' asphyxiation. But tho tribulations of the mountain ;-' , borers are over. Only a few rods of y shale and rock remain lo be blasted '" by the tireless force of miners, work- ; ' ing in three Bhifts, day and night. The , 12 by 10 foot hole is faced with w " t solid concroto, backed by giant Urn- ?" .: hers, which in turn rett against the y solid rock. Through this waterway, f"- which will last for countless ages, will ruBh a body of water nine feet deep, with a carrying capacity of l,300cublc 7 " feet a second, Tho Great Spirit of the Rookies will mourn a vassal torn from V j - bis dominion?, and evorywhore peo- $ pie will enjoy peaches and muskmel- '"'M "v. onB and potatoos grown in the arid I- i soil of the Uncompabgre valley |