THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



267 



Wooden crib diversion dam at head of irri- 

 gation canal 20,000 



$ 903,415 



Contingencies, 10 per cent 90,341 



Engineering, 5 per cent 45,170 



Total $1,038,926 



Total number of acre-feet stored is 241,396, at a 

 rate of $4.30 per acre-foot. 



It will be observed that Mr. Walcott, in an inter- 

 view published in the Tucson Star, April 18, 1903, 

 said: 



"Boring operations are now going on at the site of 

 the proposed San Carlos dam. The best borings so far 

 made finds bed rock at a depth of sixty-five feet. Ow- 

 ing to the great expense occasioned by so great a depth, 

 unless better borings are found, that depth would be 

 practically prohibitive." 



If this statement is true how is it that the fact only 

 "dawned" on Mr. Walcott after he had been breathing 

 that hypnotic ozone of Phoenix ? It is evident that Mr. 

 Walcott, in casting about for an excuse for his sudden 

 hostility to the San Carlos dam and surprising conver- 

 sion to a scheme that will make private land syndicates 

 the chief beneficiaries of the National Irrigation fund, 

 evidently forgot that all the geological and consulting 

 engineers who have been recommending the feasibility 

 of the San Carlos dam have based all their conclusions 

 and estimates on a depth of 74 feet to led rock, as will 

 be seen by their official reports. These facts alone are 

 sufficient to discredit Mr. Walcott. 



But I am pleased to learn from Mr. Walcott even if 

 his statement was intended to injure instead of benefit 

 the San Carlos project, that the later borings have lo- 

 cated bed rock at a depth of sixty-five instead of seventy- 

 four feet. This discovery will call for a reduction of 

 nearly one-fifth in the estimates of the cost of the dam 

 and bring the total considerably below the million mark. 



I am pleased to be able in this connection, to call 

 Mr. Walcott's attention to what the government engi- 

 neers are finding at San Carlos at present. The Globe 

 Times, published within eighteen miles of the San Car- 

 los dam site, published the following information in its 

 edition of May 27, 1903 : 



"The hydrographical branch of the United States 

 Geological Survey is employing ten men on the Gila 

 river at the site of San Carlos dam under charge of W. 

 G. Stewart. They have been making soundings for bed 

 rock and have covered a distance in the river about 175 

 ieet, comencing at the mouth of the box, six miles below 

 San Carlos, and working up stream. They employ a 

 Peirce well-driving machine to drive the casing or outer 

 pipe to bed rock, and a steam diamond drill does the 

 Test. The average depth of bed rock at this point is 

 forty feet and the width of the canyon is about one hun- 

 dred feet, with walls five hundred feet high The rock 

 is said to be the hardest ever encountered by the survey, 

 giving evidence of permanence. In fact, the result of 

 ihe survey so far demonstrates that every requisite for a 

 dam site exist ; almost perpendicular walls, a phenomen- 

 ally narrow box and bed rock at the depth of only forty 

 feet. 



"The party expect to complete their labors by 

 July 1st." 



In the light of this additional information as to the 

 unsurpassed natural advantages offered by the San Car- 

 los site for the csonstruction of a great dam at a very 



small cost, Mr. Walcott will be compelled to offer some 

 new excuse for his curious conduct. 



This further investigation of the San Carlos dam 

 site demonstrates that it is the greatest dam site yet dis- 

 covered by the geological survey. Because of the great 

 vertical height of the canyon's walls and the narrow- 

 ness of the canyon, a dam could be constructed here to 

 a height of five hundred feet, at one-third the cost of 

 the Tonto dam, and create a reservoir of equal capacity 

 in acre-feet to that of the Tonto. The proposed Tonto 

 dam will be 830 feet in length at the top while a five- 

 hundred-foot dam at San Carlos would not be over 

 three hundred feet long at the top and one hundred 

 feet in length at the river bed level. According to 

 official measurements the annual inflow at the San 

 Carlos dam site would be amply sufficient to irrigate 

 200,000 acres of land. Less than three per cent of this 

 annual flow of the Gila at the San Carlos site has been 

 appropriated for the lands lying under the San Carlos 

 dam, (see page 94, report of J. B, Lippincott, 

 geological engineer, 1900), hence the remaining 97 per 

 cent could be stored for the reclamation of public land 

 without interfering with legal vested rights, while the 

 entire annual flow of the river at the Tonto site has been 

 appropriated by the farmers whose lands lie below the 

 dam site, and they have acquired an adjudicated vested 

 right to it that cannot be disturbed by the Government 

 or others. These farmers use this entire annual flow 

 as fast as it comes into the river, consequently there is 

 no surplus there to store. 



In discussing in his report on the San Carlos dam, 

 the lands that would be watered by it, Mr. Lippincott 

 said: 



"An examination was made of the records of the 

 United States Land Office at Tucson to determine what 

 portion of this area outside of the reservation remains 

 public domain. Nineteen townships were examined 

 and it was found that 389,211 acres therein are still 

 public domain and that 52,162 acres, lying mostly under 

 the Florence canal which canal has a very deficient 

 water right is held in private ownership." 



In compliance with Mr. Lippincott's recommenda- 

 tions all this Government land was withdrawn from 

 entry and remained withdrawn till about three months 

 ago, when it was again opened to homestead entries, 

 subject to the provisions of the National Irrigation Act 

 and subject to reduction to an eightv or forty-acre tract 

 if the Secretary of the Interior should decide, after the 

 completion of the San Carlos dam, that the land under 

 it can be entered only in tracts of that size. 



Of the 52,000 acres reported as entered land, by 

 Mr. Lippincott, title to only 45,000 acres was perfected 

 and the remainder reverted back to the public domain, 

 hence we have only 45,000 acres of patented land under 

 the San Carlos reservoir site, and only 25,000 acres of 

 this land have water rights in the Casa Grande Valley 

 canal, the only canal under the San Carlos reservoir. 

 But owing to the present condition of this canal only 

 about 6,000 acres of the 25,000 with water rights, are 

 cultivated. 



Speaking further of this land, Mr. Lippincott says : 



"It is high-grade agricultural land, suitable for 

 irrigation. The climate is adapted to the raising of 

 diversified crops, the grade of the country is uniform 

 and suitable for the application of water, and the soil 

 is exceedingly fertile. The river which carries a large 

 amount of sediment containing many fertilizing mate- 



