Show A TRIP TO BOULDER DAM A few ew days ago I 1 drove from las vegas out to boulder dam the 1110 dam la Is about forty miles to the southeast of 0 the city of 0 las vegas I 1 the road to the dam la Is superb and I 1 I 1 felt a thrill ot of pride to know that my lily government had constructed such I 1 a ine fine piece of 0 road the hot wind slid and lying flying sand gave us all I 1 had my family along a little Int introduction to what we would find later on oil boulder city looks like a jewel nestling between two barren sunburned ridges the layout lay out ot of the city is very tine fine the streets are cemented and lined with beautiful trees any of 0 the public buildings there would be a credit to any modern city A lew few miles beyond boulder city lies the dam it seemed to mo me that we were going down grade all tile the w way a y fro from las vegas to the darri dam and on oil reaching the dam I 1 found that tile the elevation there was about twelve hundred feet above sea level giving me a drop ot of eight hundred feet act in forty miles the dam is really built in black canyon boulder canyon is fifteen or twenty miles up the stream from where the dam is being built la in the beginning there was a question as to the proper place tor for tile the location ot of the dam after the question was settled the name boulder generally ad herred to it official washington renamed re named the dam hoover but thanks to the new officials fici als the dam will forever be called boulder on the day of our visit a light wind was blowing down the canyon and the sky was overcast over cast this was exceptional tor for that location the temperature at the observation piat platform over 90 F but under ordinary conditions it must be well over it has boen baen reported that the temperature in the tunnels when they were under construction sometimes reached most of the men work shirtless and the regulation requires that they wear steel hats something like the soldiers wore in the world war days A high scaler was killed two days ago because lie he wore a felt hat and a small rock tell fell from above him lodging in ills his head four months ago the mighty tunnels were finished and the temporal aay y cofferdams coffer dams were made to turn the water from its natural bed so that hie lie work of building the dam proper could proceed in sarvey the flow ot of tile the colorado has more than doubled in the last two days the unruly river Is now flowing through the four 50 foot tunnels lined three feet thick with conci condole ete the earth barriers and tile the illige huge cof ferdais protect the bottom from any possible rise in the river uy BY content tile water at boulder dam should measure about forty per cent silt two years ago I 1 measured the teiei 1 silt content at bright angel point one hundred and fifty miles up slit am fiolli boulder and at that time in july it measured three per cent silt some one has hasi said that the water at boulder isa Is I 1 1 too thick to drink and too thin to plow it if you want a home conc concep ep tion of what the water of tile the color ado looks like at the dam site take a pint cup full of sand and clay mixed and stir it into a pint and a halt of water I 1 i at present the high sealers are busy blasting down the ja jagged aged black 1 walls of the canyon big shovels are scooping up the bottom of the river 1 bed and trucks are dumping this busted rock on to the cofferdam coffer cotter dam dams the four our tunnels are carrying their loads with ease and a thousand feet above the workers in the bottom mighty cables span the chasm the sheave wheels sing like a mighty swarm of angry bees as they race back and forth across those cables men islen and machinery are carried into and out of that hot inferno on electrically driven carriages with such exact precision that it is ai almost uncanny just below the dam site a cooling plant is being installed an ammonia cooling system is to take care of the heat that would be generated tn in the great block of cement that it will take to fill that chasm of the black canyon without some kind of a cooler a block of cement as large as that one will de be would not set completely tor for over a hundred years there is always sonic shrinkage too with the slow cooling of cement wages are fair at the dam they run from four dollars to ten dollars a shift but what ever they are they are well earned the contractors are doing all they can to protect the lives of their employees but still the death and accident rate are pretty high also tile the officials are doing a tine fine job in keeping drunkenness out of that area the name of 0 the six companies will go down in history tor for its achievement chie in complete ing tills this major job for uncle sam chester W cheel editors note mr cheel is principal of the school at preston nevada lie wa was for many years an instructor in the millard county schools and wrote the above a article rt I 1 c I 1 e in ill tile the alope that his former pupils mid and friends in III tills this county would enjoy relt reading ding about the great bould Boult fw dam now low under tinder construction construction is la |