THE IEEIGATION AGE. 



75 



practical knowledge and skill, has enabled him to bring 

 the works recently completed to a remarkably success- 

 ful conclusion. 



Under the urgent persistence of Major Powell Con- 

 gress resumed to a limited extent the annual appropria- 

 tions for the necessary surveys and preliminary work, 

 which in Nevada were extended from the basins of the 

 Carson and Truckee Eivers to the Walker Eiver and 

 their entire water sheds, including in particular Lake 

 Tahoe, known to all experienced tourists as "the Gem 

 of the Sierras," and the great number of smaller glacial 

 lakes of the high Sierra that drain to the eastern slope. 



Gradually, as the knowledge of the subject in- 

 creased, its great and vital importance was recognized 

 by a larger number, and when President Eoosevelt, who 

 possessed a larger and more intimate knowledge of the 

 needs of the great West than any of his predecessors, 

 took the subject in hand it was successfully crystallized 



deeper moment than any transformation scene upon 

 theatrical boards. It was a grand stage, where all 

 the world might be spectators, for along its entire front 

 from Hazen to the summit of the Sierra ran the main 

 line of the Southern Pacific in full view of this reclam- 

 ation work. From the ice-cold depths of the Sierra 

 lakes, Tahoe, Fallen Leaf, Donner and twenty others, 

 tumbled the foamy rapids to lower levels. These 

 sources of supply are inexhaustible, and the joyous vigor 

 of its birth seems to give it strength for the great work 

 of human helpfulness by the transformation of the 

 desert sands. Near the new station of Hazen may be 

 seen the camp of the engineers near the great dam 

 and the heading of the canal. This was doubtless one, 

 and a very important reason, for the straightening of 

 the main line which left Wadsworth off to the north. 

 The main canal is thirty-one miles in length and has 

 a capacity of 1,400 cubic feet of water a second for 



Site of One of Reservoirs, Truckce-Carson Project. 



in the Eeclamation Law of June 17, 1902. Naturally 

 the Truckee-Carson project, previously suggested and 

 developed by Mr. Taylor, and which suggested certain 

 conspicuous features, received the immediate attention 

 of the Government and was the first to be selected for 

 active work .as an illustration of what the Government 

 could do in this important field. 



June 17 should be a red letter day, not only in 

 the calendar of Nevada but in the calendar of the 

 great West, for three years from the day President 

 Eoosevelt signed the Eeclamation Law Senator New- 

 lands and the Congressional Irrigation Committees saw 

 the waters of the Truckee Eiver diverted by the im- 

 mense dam into the great cement-lined ditch that car- 

 ried it miles away to the thirsty plains awaiting, and 

 inaugurated the first great work of irrigation reclama- 

 tion by the United States Government. 



The three years that intervened saw the work go 

 on in the canyon of the Truckee Eiver and the broader 

 valley below a play of more entrancing interest and 



the first section of six miles, at the end of which a 

 branch crosses the Truckee Eiver by an inverted syphon, 

 conveying 250 cubic feet a second to the reserve lands 

 between Wadsworth and Pyramid Lake, which body 

 of water it was feared would itself become a desert 

 by evaporation when the waters of the Truckee were 

 diverted. From this syphon to the Carson Eiver the 

 main canal has a capacity of 1,200 cubic feet. 



These thirty-one miles of canal involve many engi- 

 neering problems more or less novel in their character, 

 but which were successfully solved. Excavations were 

 deep and fills were high across intersecting canyons, 

 where provision of course had to be made for times 

 of flow. Three concrete-lined tunnels, one of them 

 1,400 feet in length, were constructed at great cost 

 and difficulty, for unforseen obstacles are always en- 

 countered. 



Professor Chandler, who has written ably on the 

 subject in the pages of Sunset Magazine, states that: 

 "During July. 1904, contracts were let for the construe- 



