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Show mwmWmm . II . BY FLOOD FROM A DAM ! AND D. ft R. G. WASHED- OUT I . I SALT LAKE CITY, June 25. The entire branch of the Denver & Rio Grande railroad at Schofleld, about five miles from where the mammoth reservoir reser-voir dam near Fairview, Utah, broke last night, destroying thousands of dollars in crops, wns completely wiped out today, according to monger reports received here at tho local offices of tho railroad. Communication has boon almost entirely cut on and definite information in-formation regarding the break is impossible. im-possible. FAIRVIEW, Utah. Juno 25. Tho dam of tho Price-Rivor Irrigation com- i ' ' pany, twelve miles from here, which i , started to break yesterday afternoon, was a total loss this morning-. All fears that there will bo loss of life in the towns of Schofleld, Helper,. Castle- r gate and Colton, in the path of tho 11,000 acre feet of water that wero re- ' leased in the break, were dispelled this j I morning with an announcement by tho ! Denver & Rio Grande railroad that its force of men, assisted by workers of tho Irrigation company, had taken hundreds of men, women and children to safety. t ; Whilo officials of the irrigation com- 14 ( Continued on Pago 3 ) 'If uu ENDANGERED (Continued From Page 1) pany were unable to givo an exact estimate esti-mate of the loss to tho dam, crops and property, they declared that the damage dam-age would probably exceed $3,000,000. SALT LAKE, June 25. Tho crushing crush-ing force of hundreds of millions of gallons of water, caused by the melting melt-ing snow, flowing suddenly into tho Mammoth reservoir which impounds tho waters of the Price River Irrigation Irriga-tion company, twelve miles northeast of Fairviow, Sanpete county, yesterday yester-day afternoon caused the concrete core of tho immense dam to give way. Tho 11,000 acre feet of water which had been stored is rushing down tho Price rlvexvalley. Residents of Scofield, Helper, Castle-gate Castle-gate and Colton have deserted their homes and gone to higher ground to escapo tho flood. All hopo of saving tho dam has been abandoned and it is said that forty miles of the main and branch lines of the Denver & Rio Grande railroad may be washed away. Officials were loath toy give any estimate esti-mate of tho possible damage, but that it will probably reach a huge sum was admitted. The immediate effect of tho flood, aside from tho daniago to farms, bridges and railroad trackage, will be to temporarily at least shut off the mines of Carbon county from receiving receiv-ing tho supply of cars on which they depend for moving coal to the smelters supplied by the Utah Fuel company Railroad Men Prrnnpc iiiiiiiuuu iTicn rrcfjurc Officials of the Denver &. Rio Grande at midnight sont out a wrecking crow from Helper and made up a bridge crow at Salt Lake for instant service F. E. Clarity, assistant' general manager man-ager in charge of the Utah lines oi the D. & R. G is at Helper. The first break in the concreto core carried away a section from forty tc fifty feet wide and Ave feet high. Forestry For-estry officials stationed at Fairviow went to tho dam and tendered then services to tho irrigation company, Big trees were blasted and dragged tc tho reservoir in the hope that they would flow to tho break and aid In staying the How. They only tended tc aid in breaking away more of the concrote. At 2 o'clock this morning the breach had widened to sixty feet for an estimated esti-mated depth of fifteen feet and all hope of saving any of tho water has been entirely abandoned. Telephone Girl Gives Warning So far no loss of hfo has been reported, re-ported, but Immense damago to growing grow-ing crops is suro to resulL Tho flrsl notice of tho flood was telephoned tc farmers by Miss Annabel Prltchett telephono operator at Fairview, whe gave warning of tho break to all homes and farms in the path of the flood. Residents of Scofield, Helper, Cas-tlegate Cas-tlegate and Colton were at once warned warn-ed to move to higher ground. Sovoral thousand acres of prairie land at Sco Held wcro flooded early in tho evening eve-ning and a perceptiblo rise in the Price river at Colton was noted. The water from tho break is rushing down Gooseberry creek Into Fish creek and thenco into the Prlco river at Colton. Receive Word of Break. The first notlco of the break in the dam was received late yesterday afternoon af-ternoon by Gcorgo Austin, president of the irrigation company, from tho Denver & Rio Grande railroad. Mr. Austin at once prepared to leave for the property. Accompanying him on the automobile trip which began at 11 o'clock last night is John C. "Whoelon, engineer of tho project. They oxpoot to reach tho dam at an early hour this morning. -Tha project was started-some .nino: years ago and was taken over three years la'ler by the farmers who an served. Tho dam Is now about sixty feet in height and impounds 11.00C acre feet of water, a sufficient supply for the irrigation of 10,000 acres oi land in the Price rlvor valley. It was planned to contlnuo the height of the dam to 100 feet, so that sufficient water could bo stored for 20,000 acres of land. To date tho construction con-struction represents an expenditure of approximately $160,000. Tho dam la of tho latest approved construction, having a center core of concreto two feet in thickness, reinforced at intervals inter-vals of twenty feet with reinforced concreto buttresses. The dam at the top spans a reservoir of 510 feet wide. Tho footing of the dam is -100 feet wide and is sunk In bedrock. Original plans for the mammoth dam were drawn by Frank C. Kelsoy and A. F. Doremus In 1903 and on May 6 wero approved by Mr. Doremus as state engineer. Tho original plans called for a dirt clam without a core 100 feet high, 400 feet thick at tho base, 610 feet wido and with a twenty-foot crest. Later new plans were submitted and the construction of the concreto core wall begun. This dam with tho coro wall had been constructed construct-ed up to a height of sixty foot when tho break occurred. For Storage Purposes. The reservoir was designed to store i water to supplement the regular flood J waters of tho Price river and were l brought into use generally during the . month of July each year when the wa- tor of the river became too low to furnish sufficient for irrigation purposes. pur-poses. With 11,000 acre feet of water 1 in storage at tho time the breach in the dam occurred there was impound-" impound-" ed in round numbers about 3,600,000,-; 3,600,000,-; 000 gallons of water, or enough to ir- rlgate 10,000 acres for a period of per-i per-i haps four months. Tho break In the Mammoth dam re-. re-. calls a similar break in the early summer sum-mer of 1914, when the Hntchtown dam U I i broke, causing considerable damage to crops and property. By special ar- rangement, however, the state land I board was able to furnish. the pur- I chasers under the project with water and later acquired water rights and made a now survey for the reconstruction reconstruc-tion of the dam. |
