78 FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION February 



The pathfinder project. be rec laimed are of great fertility and 



The investigations on the Pathfinder adapted to a wide variety of products, 



project began in April, 1903, and have Above the canal line and extending 



been pushed energetically ever since, for many miles in both states is a vast 



The preliminary work has reached a range furnishing free grazing for 



point where contracts have been let for thousands of cattle, 



a portion of the work and actual con- mamona nmi work. 



struction will be started in a few , 



wee j cs One of the most essential details 



The Pathfinder project contemplates connected with the preliminary inves- 



the storage of the flood and surplus tigafaons of a large Government irri- 



waters of the North Platte -River in an gation project is the work of the 



immense reservoir, which will be made diamond drillers. As soon as the 



by constructing a high dam in a nar- reconnaissance surveys indicate a feas- 



row canyon of the stream. The annu- lble P r J ect the diamond drill outfit is 



al discharge of the river is approxi- sent out to discover the availability of 



mately one and a half million acre the da Slt u e - , In a11 cases where dams 



feet, and the reservoir will be capable a to b f built . li 1S absolutely impos- 



of holding back all the surplus and Slble to determine the number of yards 



flood waters of the entire year. It is of excavation to bed rock until careful 



proposed to hold back the floods until examinations have been made with the 



the irrigation season, when the water diamond dri11 - The final plans of a 



will be permitted to 'flow down the Project, estimates of cost, the kinds of 



channel of the stream for a number of structure in fact, nearly all the im- 



miles, and thence be diverted by a low P ortant features connected with the 



diversion dam into canals, which will work are dependent upon the results 



carry it upon the lands to be reclaimed. ot the borings. It frequently happens 



This reservoir will serve a double when the borin g s ar e completed that 



purpose; it will eliminate for all time a11 tle Preliminary plans must be al- 



the destructive annual floods of the Occasionally the whole project 



stream, and will furnish an abundant 1S abandoned. 



and perpetual water supply for a vast The high structures which the Gov- 

 area of land now desert and worth- eminent is erecting must rest upon 

 less. The canal system required for solid foundations. Melting snows or 

 this project will be the longest in the cloudbursts on the mountains em- 

 United States, the main canal having braced in watersheds covering thous- 

 a total length of 140 miles, and supply- amis of square miles rush down steep 

 ing lands in two states, Wyoming and slopes and converge in the narrow 

 Nebraska. The reclaimable area has channels of these pent-up rivers. The 

 not been finally ascertained, but the floods beat with almost resistless force 

 present surveys indicate a total of against the impounding dams that 

 300,000 acres that can be easily sup- block the way. They must be con- 

 plied, structed as firm and as enduring as 



As in case of all government pro- the everlasting mountains from which 

 jects, complications of prior rights and they are being hewn, 

 private ownership have been encoun- The eye of man alone cannot safely 

 tered, some of these interests being determine the location of the immov- 

 exceedingly powerful and disposed to able rock upon which these great 

 obstruct the progress of the work. structures mrst be builded. Surface 

 The citizens of both states almost indications offer no safe guide ; but the 

 without exception are urging the Gov- diamond drill, penetrating the gravels, 

 ernment to proceed, and it is believed boulders, shales, and shattered forma- 

 in view of the attitude of the public tions, finds at last the permanent base, 

 that these complications will be re- An example of the fallibility of super- 

 moved in a short time. The lands to ficial investigations of dam sites was 



