NATIONAL RECLAMATION OF ARID LANDS. 473 



route, such as hills, are tunneled and the tunnels are cement lined. 

 Already the first unit of this project is practicallj^ completed, the 

 works providing for the irrigation of approximately 200,000 acres 

 of land, 75 per cent of which belongs to the Government. 



The average elevation is about 4,000 feet above sea level. The prin- 

 cipal town is Fallon, which lies almost in the center of the tract to be 

 irrigated. This thriving little city which to-day has a population 

 of 1,000 and is the terminus of a branch of a transcontinental line 

 of railroad, three years ago possessed a population of 16 people. 

 Its very rapid growth is due entirely to the work of the Government. 



The soil is adapted to the cultivation of a wide variety of crops, 

 and is of inexhaustible fertility. The valley is filling up with a 

 desirable class of settlers, and 500 choice 80-acre farms are ready and 

 waiting for practical farmers. 



COLORADO. 



Vncomfahgre Valley project. — The Uncompahgre Valley project 

 in Colorado in man}^ respects has presented more difficult problems 

 than any other work undertaken by the Service. The engineers from 

 the very first step haA^e encountered trouble. 



The topography of the country is probably the roughest in the 

 United States. Here was a canyon through which no man had ever 

 passed. It was necessary to explore it in order to locate a site for a 

 tunnel. An engineer and an assistant made the attempt, and after 

 incredible hardships succeeded. The topographers who followed to 

 complete the surveys experienced unheard-of trials, but the}', too, 

 accomplished their task. Then a road into this frightful gorge was 

 constructed^ — a remarkable road, with grades out of the canyon 24 

 per cent in places. Heavy machinery was brought in and a power 

 plant installed. River Portal became a village with a store, a school, 

 a public reading room, machine shops, cottages, and a hospital. 

 Three crews of men, each Avorking eight hours a day, were set to work 

 in the bottom of the canyon driving a tunnel under a mountain 2,000 

 feet high. 



This tunnel is to furnish an underground waterway, with cross 

 section of lOJ by 11^ feet and nearly 6 miles long, to carry the waters 

 of Gunnison River into the Uncompahgre Valley. Simultaneously 

 other crews began the same work on the other side of the mountain, 

 and night and day the drills were kept boring into the rock and shale, 

 each crew vying with the other to achieve a record. For a time work 

 was carried on from four headings. The tunnel has been driven 

 18,000 feet, or 3| miles, to date. A world's record has been made, 

 823 feet having been driven in one month. The records on the 

 Simplon Tunnel in the Alps do not equal this. One gang of laborers 

 drove 7,500 feet in one year. 



