THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



209 



by the settlers, and before he left Carlsbad, he asked 

 permission to return at a later date, reopen the hear- 

 ing and produce government witnesses to refute the 

 evidence offered by the water users. 



If he is good enough to do this, the water users 

 will get an opportunity to add to their present remark- 

 able record, the story of the Lake McMillan folly a 

 costly dam of just dirt, without a core of any kind a 

 frail wall, expected to hold back millions of tons of 

 water. 



The story of the heroism of the men who saved the 

 McMillan dam is told in simple language by Prof. 

 Taylor, Secretary Lane's member of the Carlsbad re- 

 valuation project, in a letter to the IRRIGATION AGE. 

 He says : 



"I venture in this direct way to call your atten- 

 tion to signal, brave, prompt, patriotic, and dangerous 

 service performed on April 18, 1915 (Sunday), by 

 Mr. E. C. Koppen, a surveyor or engineer now in the 

 employ of the U. S. Geological Survey, or the U. S. 

 Reclamation Service. The circumstances are these : 



"The water at and above Carlsbad was very high 

 and the Pecos River was nearly full and Lakes Mc- 

 Millan and Avalon were even full and every waste way 

 running full blast and wide open. Mr. Koppen, about 

 2 p. m., Sunday, was taking a stroll with his wife and 

 happened to walk along the old river bank below Mc- 

 Millan dam. At this time he saw water running 

 from the sides and down the stream face of the dam 

 and that the total discharge by his estimate was about 

 four cubic feet per second. 



"Without hesitation he dashed at full speed back 

 to the east end of the dam, routed out his field party 

 of assistants on the lake survey, secured sacks, spades, 

 and ran to the point of danger. He promptly went to 

 work, located the point of ingress of the water which 

 was about at the level of the water in the lake, filled 

 sacks with dirt, dumped them in the holes, while two 

 of his men worked in the dangerous section in the mud, 

 slush, up to the hips, and finally after he had filled and 

 dropped in something over FIVE HUNDRED 

 SACKS of dirt, he succeeded in checking the flow by 

 about 7 to 8 p. m. 



"Only five men were engaged in the work and 

 they were men on the surveying party. A runner came 

 to Carlsbad and put out the report that it would be 

 impossible to save the dam, and that it was practically 

 OUT. The heroic and prompt work of Koppen and his 

 men had the flow and leak stopped by the time the re- 

 ported failure had spread in Carlsbad. I was in Carls- 

 bad at the time and on Monday, April 19, 1915, I went 

 to Lake McMillan and looked over the situation. I can 

 say without hesitation that had it not been for Koppen 

 and his men the McMillan darn would have washed 

 out, and without doubt, the flood would have taken 

 the Avalon dam, and great loss of life and the destruc- 

 tion of the Carlsbad project would have been the result. 



"Koppen and his men saved a million dollar proj- 

 ect and many lives. Too much can not be said in 

 praise of this modest hero and his men." 



Abel Ady, member of the Review Board on the . 

 Klawath (Ore.) project, has the following to say con- 

 cerning; the work on his project : 



"The April number of the IRRIGATION AGE pre- 

 sents the Federal Review Boards as "Revaluation 

 Boards." 



"These boards have been provided for the purpose 



of reviewing the actual expenditures upon Federal 

 Irrigation Projects, with a view of determining and 

 fixing the proper amounts of project expenditures to 

 be collected from the settlers. 



"To divert this work into a mere revaluation of 

 the structures would be a farce so far as the expendi- 

 tures are concerned. The present economic conditions 

 may give the structures a far greater valuation than 

 would have been justified by the economic conditions 

 when the structures were made or obtained, or vice 

 versa. 



"Also a revaluation would not reveal the wisdom 

 or lack of wisdom in making the expenditures or in ap- 

 portioning them among the various units of a project. 



"What the settlers really desire is a review of the 

 actual expenditure, a determination of the intent of 

 contracts, agreements and understanding between the 

 Service and settlers, the law under which the expendi- 

 tures were made ; and a determination of the amounts 

 of these expenditures that should be collected from the 

 settlers. Also the elimination of such charges as may 

 be shown to have been inequitably or unjustly debited. 



"To this end the settlers of the Klamath Project 

 are bending every energy. Every contract, agreement, 

 assurance and inducement affecting any of the expendi- 

 tures or the apportionment of the same, will be care- 

 fully scrutinized. 



"Our settlers will agree to pay all that is deter- 

 mined by a fair board to be just, regardless whether or 

 not that amount is greater or less than the present 

 value of the works, and regardless of whether or not 

 that amount is equal to or less than the entire project 

 expenditures. 



"We will not attempt to repudiate the payment of 

 a dollar honestly or intentionally spent in our behalf, 

 and will give the lender of the funds the benefit of all 

 doubts." 



AN AUSTRALIAN BUYER 



Editor of IRRIGATION AGE: The writer has just 

 arrived in the States, together with one of our en- 

 gineers, and among other things, we are investi- 

 gating closely methods, machinery and new de- 

 velopments in the field covered by your journal. 



I shall be glad to have at hand a sample copy 

 or two of your publication, together with a memo 

 of subscription rates to Australia, and shall be 

 pleased if you will be good enough to announce in 

 your next issue our presence in the U. S. A. and our 

 interest in the machinery, etc., as particularly ap- 

 plied to this trade or business. 



It so happens that I am making a short visit 

 to a relative of mine at 3219 North Capitol avenue, 

 Indianapolis, where I shall be glad of your return 

 advice and sample copies. In a week or two I will 

 join our engineer, Mr. H. P. McColl, who has now 

 reached Chicago, at the Hotel LaSalle there, follow- 

 ing which we will work through all the industrial 

 centers to the East and then across to England. 



We are, 



Very truly yours, 



WM. MCLEAN & Co., 



of Melbourne, Australia. 

 O. L. REMINGTON. 



General Manager. 



