488 XATIOlJsAL KECLAMATTOX OF ARID LANDS. 



value of lands wliicli now ranges from $5 to $10 per acre will be 

 increased to $75 and upward. AVork has progressed to a point where 

 water can be delivered to 10.000 acres in the summer of 1007. 



WYOMING. 



SJiosJwne project. — This project contemplates the utilization of a 

 portion of the surplus waters of the Shoshone River for the reclama- 

 tion of land in the northern part of Bighorn County. Wyo. It 

 involves the construction of the Shoshone dam. a concrete masonry 

 arch, and the highest structure of its kind in the world. This dam 

 will lock a very narrow canyon, so that in cubical contents it will not 

 compare with any of several other dams, but in its great height it 

 exceeds them all. From bed rock to top it will be 310 feet ; at its 

 base it is only So feet long, and on top only 200 feet. The prelim- 

 inary work on this structure was attended with great difficulties, 

 owing to the almost inaccessible location of the dam site and the 

 unexpected conditions which were found in the river bed. The dia- 

 mond drills went down 88 feet in places before finding a permanent 

 base, and bowlders 38 feet in thickness were penetrated, resting on 

 beds of sand and gravel. 



As in Arizona, it was necessary to construct a road up the canyon 

 for several miles. The work is well under way, and it is expected 

 that water will be available for a considerable area in the season of 

 1908. TMien completed the Shoshone project will cost $3,500,000, 

 and will irrigate 100.000 acres of land. 



NEW MEXICO. 



Bio Grande project. — The Rio Grande project provides for the irri- 

 gation of 180,000 acres of the rich valley lands along the Rio Grande 

 in Xew Mexico and Texas. The engineering works involved are the 

 Engle dam, to be built of cyclopean concrete, arched upstream, and 

 255 feet high. Its length at crest will be 1,150 feet, and at river level 

 -100 feet. This dam will create an artificial reservoir 40 miles long, 

 with a capacity of 2.000.000 acre-feet. As the estimated cost of this 

 project is $7,200,000, it has not been jDossible to commence the con- 

 struction of the prmcipal works, but the smn of $200,000 has been 

 set aside for the construction of the Leasburg diversion dam and the 

 enlargement of the Las Cruces canal, a unit of the main j)roject. 



This diversion dam is a concrete structure 600 feet long, connected 

 with the old Las Cruces system by a canal G miles long. Construc- 

 tion was begun in Xovember, 1906, and 15.000 acres of land in Mesilla 

 Valley will be supplied with water during the irrigation season of 

 1907. TVlien completed this system will supply water to 40.000 acres 

 which, owmg to the destruction of the old canal system, are abso- 

 lutely without water supply. 



Hondo project. — This j^roject. which is practically comiDleted. pro- 



