OCR Text |
Show IRE SUSPICIOUS jicials of Irrigation Company and Engi-M Engi-M neers Investigate Break of the J Gooseberry Reservoir. WEVE THAT ALIEN ENEMY IS RESPONSIBLE1 ''"irmly convinced that foul piny wiw the cause of the koIiik out. B Mammoth reservoir dam, officials of the Trice Hivcr Irrlgn- company returned to Salt Lake City last Tuesday from an in- Htion trip to Gooseberry Valley. The party Included George1 iKfl, president of the company; Thomas Austin, director;' rjcA. Smith, secretary; John C. Whcelon, company engineer; konihah Thomnu, counsel for the company, and D. A. Pratt, an cecr for the Utah-Idaho Sugar company. While the members e party had little to say for publication, it is evident that all returned with the idea that there was every evidence that thd giveaway not because of faulty engineering nor the flooded iitlon of the valley, but because of deliberate plotting. Attorney Thoma.s Is Suspicious. According to Thomas, a thorough Investigation was made of dim and the causes leading up to the disaster. The character he work done and all matter pertaining to the construction of dim were examined. A report is being prepared for the board .rectors, but neither the engineers nor the attorney would give tnythinjr for publication until their reports have been mado to board of directors, notwithstanding that the company officials rt the state englncer'a report had been given more or loss pub-r pub-r before it was filed with the governor. It was stated that activities of strangers in Sanpete and Car-county Car-county arc being watched very closely, it being well known t the Denver and Rio Grande which was Injured by the break-of break-of the dam furnished the key to the coal mines which supplied tmeltcrs nnd the copper industries. According to Thomns, the last five feet of cement work at the : of the dam put in last year was found to be in many places blind bl-ind fastened securely to the old cement work. In not one aace was the line of cleavage found by the company officials broken nnd the report that the last five feet of cement wns rli declared to bo absolutely untrue. Homh Theory Advanced By Some. It Is hinted that a bomb couUrcnsily have been dropped In one the wells which had been arranged for soonagc botweon the a!I and the crest of the earth wall of the dam. Thu wooden nlu nt the opening of the spillway could havo been removed in minutes nnd tho fact that the water flowed from the spillway J the center of the corewall before the break occurred, it was tared, Is ample evidence that the wall at that point had been, Jttncd by somo unuaunl agent rather than by poor construe-1 i. I The cre3t of the earth wall supporting the dam soma ninety i tfrom the corewall was three feet eleven inches above the J tw, according to assertions of compnny officials. The water at tho timo of tho break was falling and the water In lake was snld to bo absolutely under control. The work nt the nt where the breakage occurred was as fine as anywhere on : dam and pieces of it show no faulty construction, officials trt. Some Very Serious Accusations. While it has been intimnted in some qunrters and by some of 1 members of tho state land board who made a visit of Inspcc-, a to the scene of devastation laBt week that there is reason to 'we that the destruction of the Mammoth dam on Sunday, ?e24th, may have been due to tho work of alien enemies, the Won is expressed by H. S. Klelnschmldt, in an article In the Sheering News-Record of Now York City, thnt the catastrophe due to a vlolatlpn of state legislation, which resulted in make-'H make-'H construction, and to carelessness In operation. Neiiuchmidt declnres that tho original plans and spocmca-"i spocmca-"i filed some years ago and approved by the state engineer, J not been followed In any particular, and after work had pro-d pro-d along entirely different lines h violation of the state aw Wiring the approval of plana for dams, still other plans wore alto the offico of tho state engineer, but the revised plans had v been approved. No Wind to Scour Out Fill. ,Ply reports, says Klelnschmldt, laid the break to an unuaunl ywof water from melting snow entering tho reservoir I ma, declares, could not have been the cause. The watchman a re-J re-J M to tho effect that the reservoir leve had remained sta-nr sta-nr for twenty-four hours previous to the break, nndthe : n fell r mark In the reservoir showed that the upper dike was not gapped. There hnd been no wind to scour out the fill. The disaster, thinks Klelnschmldt, can be attributed only to carelessness In the' lack of an adequate spillway an d inthe construction of what was intended toynW' J the unsafe height to which water was held in the ri Jnt the earth fill forming the crest of the eartrt dam. The un jJeU condition and design of the outlet tower Jm J Mf Sy cause. Tho very temporary makeshift PMms, ne fres, for controlling tho inlets to the tower made It impos- trMSftoen U4 and wide, says Wdjf unJ J ly 'protected, with means for quick "WJJ. haonStedL the calnmtty most certainly would not have happened. An Eloquent Warning to Others. & ?ifiater. concludes Klelnschmldt Is f&tfg& S ,ax ,net,,dB in tho operation of structures thntt J 5!l?menta of d"8er ,n9t which every Pf H?.0P3cra SiT,been tnken' U ifl contended by some of U o man & " state land bonrd,who visited the scene of the caiasij 4 umffmrmmmmmmmm OF FOUL WORK AT DAM few days after the breaking of the dam that, whlto there la no outward out-ward evidence that tho destruction of the dam was due" to alien enemies, there was no natural reason for the happening, and that if the great outpouring of wnter hnd not eliminated all evidence it would remain to prove the theory. They assert that the dam was without guard for two hours while tho watchmen went to dinner en the day it broke, and thnt alien enemies could have taken advantage ad-vantage of the condition then existing. Sure the Work of Allen Enemies. John Y. Smith, who Is handling property for sale under tho canal system, came down from tho state capital Vedncsdny evening. even-ing. He is in close touch with tho officials and big stockholders of the irrigation company. lie talked with them on Tucsdny after i j the return of Austin, Whcelon nnd othurs from the dam nnd says 'most emphatically that the report of tho two engineers will show I that the dam wns blown out. The report to tho stockholders and (directors in the course of a very few days will give their version i 'of the catastrophe. |