OCR Text |
Show Secretary Wilbur Talks Of Scenic Possiblities Touching on these scenic wonders a Washington dispatch of the 28tu quotes Secretary Wilbur in the following fol-lowing article: Vast scenic possibilities, second only to its promise as a power source and water reservoir, are seen by Secretary Sec-retary of the Interior Wilbur in the Boulder dam of the future. Awaiting congressional action on his request for funds to begin the project the secretary speculated on the likelihood of this latest of federal feder-al engineering undertakings becoming becom-ing "one of the tourist wonders of the west." Wilbur described a great 110-mile lake impounded behind the dam. with arms extending far up the Grand Canyon of the Colorado and the Virgin river, rendering accessible acces-sible scenic splendors hitherto viewed view-ed only by the most hardy boatmen. When the dam is completed and the water massed in a column 575 feet behind it, lie believes it will prove no less an attraction to tourists tour-ists than "Old Faithful," the celebrated cele-brated Yellowstone geyser, or even the Carlsbad caverns. "Such a dam with such a body of water behind it will create a situation situa-tion the like of which man has never seen before," Wilbur said. " The nearest approach to it is the Elephant Ele-phant Bute dam on the Rio Grande, in New Mexico, 30 6 feet high, where one-tenth as much water is stored." In addition to the interest attached attach-ed to the dam itself, and to the great lake it will form, the desert topography topog-raphy and vegetation will appeal to scientists, he said. As the area is easily accessible to Los Angeles, he believes it offers unusual opportunities opportun-ities of development. The crest of the dam will bridge the Colorado for a new link in the transcontinental automobile highway, high-way, according to Wilbur, who suggested sug-gested that the dam might be "linked "link-ed up in a spectacular circuit trip of the southwestern national parks, including in-cluding the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon and Zion." |