| Show NO LONGER A WASTE utah remains inactive in water storage and land reclamation while other states have big projects under way here is wyoming forging to the front and gaining rapidly in population through irrigation construction although a few years ago it was looked upon as almost a worthless waste guy elleott mitchell tells of the transformation in that state A quarter of a century ago the homo of the buffalo and later a cat alo and sheen posture with an occasional cas ional aranca ranca house the big horn basin in wyoming Is now the scene of a great activity incident to the building of one of the largest of the government irrigation works some years ago colonel cody better known as buffalo bill made a survey of the shoshone Sho soone canyon and in connection with general miles projected a company to construct a dam and irrigate some acres the necessary capital however was not forthcoming and when the national irrigation i law was passed the government took up the proposition and a largo party of engineers has since been employed on the preliminaries of a great work of desert reclamation the shoshano Sho river dashes down a narrow canyon with jagged and perpendicular cular walls and at its narrowest point the government has begun the construction of the highest dam ever built it will cement together the two canyon walls for feet above the stream bed and its foundation will go below the water line 88 feet additional down to the solid bed rock the stream where it passes between these granite canyon walls Is but 65 feet wide and the dam will form a great lake of acres with a watershed of 1250 square miles and storing enough water to irrigate acres through seven miles of 14 foot tunnels bored in the solid rock this will cost about 25 an acre to be paid back to the government by the settlers under ehte businesslike business like provisions of the irrigation law the land itself Is free under the homestead act and has been reserved by secretary from entry under the desert and other land laws not requiring actual residence and home few such picturesque and wildly beautiful scenes can be found as this shoshone Sho ahone canyon the river is a succession of foaming rushing rapids the water coursing along in a deep green flood and than boiling over great rocks and boulders in a white surge only for a few hours each day can the sun find its way to the bottom of this deeply cut gorge the mountain sides towering into the clouds two and three thousand feet prom above the dam site as one looks down at the engineers working on the foundations directly underneath they alpeat like almi men this shoshone canyon and its surrounding are on of natures great handiworks handi works all has been cut out by the silver stream rushing in its bed below for countless ages it has eaten its way through granite and limestone wearing wearing away for centuries and ages it has flowed ceaselessly and likewise like wisa uselessly on its way to join the flood of the missouri now it Is to be harnessed and produce tor man A thousand farmers will make prosperous homes or themselves and fam hies and raise an annual product of a couple or three million dollars in the cajayon proper the great forces of nature have wrought wonders enormous granite boulders have detached themselves from the mountains and rolled down thousands of foot crashing their hundreds and thousands of tons into the rocky gorge here the river continually plays upon them searching out tha seams and splitting them up or wearing them away and polishing them smooth in the canyons middle below the dam site the jungle of rocks in the narrow river tod appears as though a thousand blasts of giant powder had rent the mountain sides and tumbled evet rugged projection into the depths below the imperishable granite gray pink and varicolored vari colored oldest of the geological formations made by the welding of various substances when the globe was a molten mass the later lime stones and black volcanic rocks conglomerates also melted by great heat and hard red sandstone and its white and brown contemporaries por aries formed from the grindings grindl of other to enormous pressure and lastly the and sulphur rocks soft and honeycombed the result of ceaseless sp outings of steam and hot v ater from the earths bowels all are found in wonderful profusion below the canyon where the river runs more peacefully all these formations are represented in tho huge beds of cobble stones and smaller boulders over which the water plays the cobble stones were themselves once jagged rocks detached by wind water frost and sun from their mountain bases and rolled and ground by river forces until all their sharp corners have been worn and polished away watching the government engineers cutting a road along the side of the canyon for the transportation of supplies to build the dam barrels of cement alone will be needed I 1 observed the explosion of a big charge of dynamite which burst with a roar echoing up and down tho canyon with deafening reverberations immediately an oblong granite rock of some tons weight was torn from its base and hurled down into he river a hundred feet below shatters of rock flaw in all directions and a great splash of water rose like a geyser out of the black depths of aba canyon into the sunlight in a majestic white spray yet this huge block of granite was but a baby addition to the family of boulders which bad been detached by tho more giant forces of nature and thrown into the river bed A few hours before I 1 had crawled directly under this rock in my canyon exploration returning I 1 was faaiu to accept the assistance of one of the road builders in getting across this place loolu ing down alia wallo into the river boiling below among te rocks it you slip you can get out a quarter i of a mile down stream remarked i one of the dynamiters dyna miters as j i I 1 passed my camera over and was inching across this slippery six foet clinging to the canyon side the engineering credit for this great project with its great dam its enormous spillways spill ways its mountain road building and its miles of canals and huge tunnels bored through the solid rock Is due to jeremia abern a government district engineer who almost cut off from the outside world has taken up his residence tor several years in this wild canyon once a fastness of the shoshone indians what does all this creati irrigation work of the government throughout the west signify simply that the nation has wisely decided to use the money derived from tho sale of western public lands to make its desert soil of value and furnish many homebuilding home building opportunities it means that many men will find employment in the construction st of dams and canals in every western community and that finally as the works are completed one by one new farm homes will be established adding to the nations wealth and balancing our population now inclined for a thousand years longer this splendid dam site would likely stand idle before private capital would develop it to its magnificent lull capacity tor the difficulties in the way of the engineers are many and unknown but the government will meet all obstacles and overcome them and finally turn over to a thousand farmers a perfect job of engineering comparable to the great works of the peruvian incas the egyptian rameses or the british engineers of india an enduring monument for all timo to the wisdom of the present generation of americans |
