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Show THE GUNNISON RESERVOIR. WARD STRVBNSKN. Written (or the RRC.igren, When Gunnison wat first settled, it is claimed by some p) the older residents that there was a sufficient amount of water, unappropriated. flowing down San pitch, to irrigate much m ire land than the people were able to cultivate; but in the course of time others came above them on the creek, and of course look out water until the stream was much re- duced. It has been invariably the rule 4o avoid litigation and settle all illricul ties by compromise, saving the expenses of law suits and thus promoting K'"d feelings. But this course has its disadvantages disad-vantages as well as advantages, and while the amount of cultivated land increased in area, the available water for irrigation became "small bv degrees and beautifully less." For the past lew years it has been evident that unless some method to increase the water was adopted, adopt-ed, the prosperity and growth of the settlement would be seriously affected. The only way that presented itself was to store the water which usually goes to waste during the winter and spring. On the 2nd of Feb. :88o, the board of Trustees of the watr-r incorporation concluded con-cluded to present the question of building build-ing reservoirs; and two davs after, the stockholders empowered the directois to get ready lor business, assessing themselves It. per acre as a start. Dtir- ing the summer the company obtained possession of about 600 acres of land, at a cost of J4000. Some nf the newspapers news-papers seem to infer that the work was done in a haphazard sort of way, but this is a mistake M. C. T. Stevens ofj Salt Lake City, a hydraulic engineer of unquestioned hbilitv, was employed to come and lay out the woik. The com-1 com-1 party paid in all lor surveys, plans, maps, etc., three hundred dollars; and the instructions of the engineer were carefully careful-ly complied with. The oulv variation was that the dam was built stouter than the specijicatiotts tailed for. The dam was located just above the point where Six-mile Creek empties into the Sanpitch; the site of the reservoir extended in a Northealv direction a little over three miles. Woik on the dam was commenced 111 February of the present year. The first work was laying the conduit pipe. The pipe was two feet in diameter, made of steel 1-6 of an inch in thickness, jointed like stove pipe, the whole length being one hundred feet. A heavy iron gate shut the water off at die upper end. Thcost creek, and on a level with the bed; a fall of fifteen inches to the hundred feet was given it, and lakl so that the. lower end would not be low enough to be obstructed obstruct-ed by the natural flow of the water. Around the pipe was a layer ot cement to protect the conduit. At the upper end was uuilt a penstock for'the gate, which was enclosed in a kind of wooden box. At the lower end of the steel nine was a plank box 13 feet long, to carry the water still further. This, at the pinction with the piping, was carefully cemented to prevent leakage. The dam was one hundred and twenty lect thick at the bottom, and twenty-five feet high. The specification called for a dam too leet thick and 33 feet high, so that in strength it was moie than the engineer deemed necessary. On each side ol the earth was about two feet o( rock to prevent damage from the waves and weather, and also to make it prool against the depredations of water animals. While the woik of building was going on, three men were kept busy pumping witer on the dirt so that it might pack harder together. The bottom was about eighty feet long gradually increasing to the top, which, was about five hundred feet long and' twenty-three feet thick. On the bench at the east end of the dam was a waste weir, 20 leet wide and 7 leet high, constructed so that water could be drawn at the tS foot level, or held until the water was 20 (eet deep at the dam. Connected with the waste gate was a ditch ao feet wide and 250 leet lung, having a gate at the lower eud also, to prevent washing; from which the water dropped onto a timber floor 011 the Six-mile Six-mile bottom. When full, the water would be 20 feet deep at the dam, and the dam thus had 4 night of five feet above high water mark. The plan made it three feet above, but the other two were put as an extra saleguard. The lake formed when the water was fourteen leet high was three miles long, three quarters of a mils, wide in the widest place; about one hall mile wide would bea fair average. It was estimated that the conduit could drain the j lake in fifty days, and the stream would be tufficieiit to irrigate two thousand five hundred acres during the entire season. sea-son. . Abcut 150 yards above the dam the mountain on the west side and the bench on the east almost unite, there Being only room between for the bed of theSanpitch. To this is due the fact, that when the darn hurst the water came slowly; and proves that in case ot a like disaster in the future, lile and property i arecomparatively safe. The surround- i iugs make the lake a verybeautilui piece 1 of scenery, and without doubt it will be one ot the pleasure resoris of the county coun-ty in the near futuie. Tile cause of the disaster is believed: to be the suaking of the ground under the pipe. The natural soil was not packed pack-ed as hard as that brought in to con-1 struct the dam, and as a consequence ! became soft, allowing tne upper end of the pipe to settle. This would uncouple the first joint, and the water would flow in. The settling of rocks and dirt would obstruct the flow of the water lor some time, but eventually the stream would waste away the obstruction, and as a matter of course the dam would go with it. This seems to be the most reasonable reasona-ble theory and the circumstances all go to prove it was right. Another circumstance circum-stance that no doubt.had its eft C was that the cement used, although believed by the engineer and the people to te gjod, and declared bv Mr. Carrol of Salt Lake, from whom it was purchased, to be equal to the best Portland cement, was unfit for use. ' (Tote Continued) |