1904 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



261 



Actual construction has already be- 

 gun on the Salt River project in Ari- 

 zona and on the Truckee project in 

 Nevada. Each of these projects in- 

 volves a constructive cost of $3,000,000. 



UNCOMPAHGRE PROJECT, COLORADO. 



The sum of $2,500,000 is reserved for 

 the completion of the Uncompahgre 

 project. This project is located in 

 Montrose and Delta counties, in west- 

 ern Colorado, on the west side of the 

 main range of the Rocky Mountains. 

 The source of water supply is the Gun- 

 nison River, from which it is expected 

 that water will be taken by means of a 

 tunnel about 6 miles in length, begin- 

 ning in the Grand Canyon of the Gun- 

 nison and serving water in Uncompah- 

 gre Valley, a few miles northeast of the 

 town of Montrose. 



TheUncompahgre River flowsthrough 

 a broad, fertile valley, but its flow is 

 quite inadequate for the irrigable lands. 

 The Gunnison River, flowing through 

 one of the most remarkable canyons in 

 this country, carries a comparatively 

 large volume of water, but little of 

 which can be utilized in its drainage 

 basin. It is proposed to divert a por- 

 tion of this stream's flow in a tunnel 

 cut through the mountains upon about 

 100,000 acres of land, a considerable 

 portion of which is in private owner- 

 ship in small tracts. When complete 

 this w 7 ill be one of the most remarkable 

 engineering feats in the world. 



MINIDOKA PROJECT, IDAHO. 



In Idaho the sum of $2,600,000 has 

 been provisionally allotted for the con- 

 struction of the Minidoka project in 

 the valley of the Snake River. The 

 area to be irrigated is about 120,000 

 acres. Practically all of the land under 

 this project belongs to the government. 

 It is proposed to divide the lands into 

 tracts of 40 and 80 acres each, thus 

 creating 1,400 new farms, with homes 

 for 7,000 people. 



This project contemplates the con- 

 struction of a dam 50 feet high and 572 

 feet long, \vhich will convert a canyon 

 on the Snake River into a reservoir 35 

 miles long. Gravity canals run on each 

 side of the river will cover 68,000 acres. 



In addition to this, i7,ooo-horse power 

 will be developed at the dam, which 

 will be used for pumping a supply of 

 water to irrigate about 53,000 acres of 

 land lying above the gravity canals. 

 Fifteen huge pumps, each having a 

 capacity of about no second feet, or 

 50,000 gallons, a minute, will be in- 

 stalled. 



YUMA PROJECT, CALIFORNIA. 



For California the Secretary has set 

 aside $3,000,000 for the construction of 

 an irrigation work on the Colorado 

 River above Yuma. The irrigable lands 

 in the Colorado basin consist almost 

 entirely of long, narrow valleys, rang- 

 ing from 5 to 10 feet in elevation above 

 the stream in low water. A high per- 

 centage of these lands is inundated by 

 the annual rise of the river, which oc- 

 curs about July i. The stream bed is 

 of a shifting nature. 



The general program for irrigation 

 development along this stream is to 

 be the irrigation of the valley lands 

 in the immediate vicinity of the river 

 in the territory of the United States. 

 There are two reasons for this plan : 

 First, the length of the canal line to 

 reach these lands will be at a minimum, 

 and, second, probably one-half the water 

 applied for irrigation on these lands 

 will return by seepage to the river, to 

 be available for use above. 



Extensive examinations for bed rock 

 have been made along the stream, but 

 no satisfactory bed rock has been found 

 at any point. Any storage on the Col- 

 orado, as far as now known, will have 

 to be accomplished in the upper reaches 

 of the stream, and explorations are now 

 being carried on in Colorado and Utah 

 with this in view. 



The September water supply is suffi- 

 cient to irrigate 520,000 acres of land. 

 There are 300,000 acres of land in the 

 bottoms above the Yuma project and 

 400,000 acres including the Yuma pro- 

 ject. Assuming that 50 per cent of this 

 water returns from the 300,000 acres 

 irrigated, there would be sufficient water 

 for the irrigation of about 670,000 acres 

 of land. The bottom lands in the val- 

 ley of the Colorado River in the United 

 States aggregate about 400,000 acres. 



