Far from the beaten path of man, fifty miles from the nearest railway
in a deep and narrow granite canyon of the North Platte River, in
southern Wyoming, engineers in 1903 located an admirable site for a
high masonry dam. Early maps of the expedition of Gen. John C. Frémont,
the explorer, indicated the spot as the scene of a disaster where these
adventurers suffered the wreck of their boats and the loss of many
belongings in the rapids of the river. Hence the name Pathfinder dam.
This is a beautiful structure of huge granite blocks 225 feet high and
600 feet long on top, and its cost was $1,000,000.
[Illustration: SHOSHONE RESERVOIR, WYOMING]
Judged from the service it has rendered mankind already, as a
preventive against disastrous floods and a guarantor of generous
harvests, it deserves a high place among the storage structures of the
world. Since its completion the North Platte River has been completely
tamed, and angry floods that once wrought millions of dollars of
destruction are now so distributed as to insure an annual harvest
valued at $6,000,000 in a region once occupied only by nomadic herdsmen.
_Transferring a River_
The waters of the Strawberry River in Utah, which for ages flowed
idly to the Pacific Ocean, are today contributing to the material
prosperity of a beautiful valley in the drainage of Great Salt Lake.
The transferrence of a river from its own drainage into that of another
has been performed by the Federal engineers on several occasions,
notably in Colorado, where the Gunnison River is augmenting the flow of
the Uncompahgre, the St. Mary River in Montana (a former tributary of
the Arctic Ocean, now transferred to Atlantic drainage) and the Truckee
River in Nevada, now consolidated with the Carson River.
[Illustration: PATHFINDER DAM, WYOMING
218 feet high, 600 feet long at top. Irrigates 220,000 acres; cost,
$1,000,000]
Strawberry Valley, Utah, in the heart of the lofty Wasatch Range, has
been converted into a large lake by means of a dam in Strawberry River.
The stored waters are turned through a tunnel four miles long, piercing
the range, and dropped into Utah Valley on the Western slope. By means
of sixty miles of cement-lined canals skirting the mountains, an area
of 60,000 acres of excellent agricultural land has been reclaimed.
The downward rush of water has been harnessed, and the surplus power
developed is leased to several of the towns in the valley.
[Illustration: ELEPHANT BUTTE DAM, NEW MEXICO
Height, 318 feet; length at top, 1674 feet. Creates largest artificial
reservoir for irrigation in the world]
_Reclamation Past and Future_
Fifteen years have passed since reclamation became a Federal policy,--a
short period in a nation’s life if measured only in time, but one of
historic importance when measured by achievement and progress. In
this brief span of years the Service has completed sixteen notable
structures of masonry and concrete, controlling the floods of
torrential streams, has excavated more than 10,000 miles of canals,
many of which carry whole rivers, and seventy miles of tunnels, mostly
in mountains. It has to its credit the highest dam, the longest tunnel
and the largest storage reservoir for irrigation in the world. By an
investment of $120,000,000, which is repayable by the farmers in twenty
years, the productive territory of the nation has been expanded by
more than a million acres, and there has resulted an annual increase
in its food supply valued at $50,000,000. Where once the wilderness
reigned, the hearth-stones of 200,000 people have been erected, and a
citizenship established which constitutes a new bulwark of American
liberty, and bulkhead the flood waters of anarchy. Thrilling, dynamic,
and inspirational, this work quickens patriotic impulses and stimulates
love for the republic that has promoted it.
[Illustration: OUTLET OF THE STRAWBERRY VALLEY TUNNEL
Four miles long, and connecting Pacific Ocean drainage with that of our
great interior basin]
_Reclamation Plans_
The plans of the Reclamation Service for the present and for the
immediate future are centered upon the completion of twenty-six
projects, embracing a total of 3,118,000 acres. To date, engineering
works have made available an adequate water supply for approximately
1,800,000 acres. In 1917, water was applied to about 1,200,000 acres,
and the gross value of crops was nearly $60,000,000. It is conservative
to state that with the irrigation of all the lands included in these
projects, 50,000 families will have been established on individual
farms. The taxable wealth will be augmented by $300,000,000, and our
annual returns from crops increased by $100,000,000. The area included
in these projects exceeds the total cropped acreage of Connecticut,
Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Delaware, and the estimated
value of crops after reclamation is $20,000,000 greater than the total
returns per annum of these states. In these estimates no account
is taken of the important increment to our national wealth in the
resulting growth of cities and towns, in the building of railroads,
and in manufacturing and commercial institutions, which in aggregate
usually equals that of land values.
[Illustration: THE NEW HOME ON THE DESERT]
In fulfilling its manifest destiny, the West has undertaken the
greatest and most splendid enterprise in the world--the upbuilding
of Man. It is doing for the world what the world needs most. It is
producing a great people. The sentiment of it has been expressed in
eloquent terms by the late Henry Grady, “A citizen,” he said, “standing
in the doorway of his home, contented on his own threshold, his family
gathered about him, while the evening of a well-spent day closes in
scenes that are dearest,--he shall save the republic when the drum
tap is futile and the barracks are deserted.” This pregnant sentence
epitomizes the final chapter of our Romance of the Desert, as it is now
being written in the arid West.
[Illustration: PRODUCTS OF THE DESERT]
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_SUPPLEMENTARY READING_