THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



167 



and active operations are now under way on the 

 construction of the main canal and the surveys of its 

 distributing system. Under the law of June 25, 1910, 

 no land will be available for homestead entry under 

 the Fort Laramie Unit until water is available there- 

 for. 



The North Platte River carries the run-off from 

 a large and mountainous territory. Its catchment 

 basin contains the mountains of North Park in Colo- 

 rado and the Ferris, Green, Seminole, Laramie and 

 inferior ranges in mountainous Wyoming. Through 

 its tributary, the Sweetwater River, it also carries 

 the run-off from a considerable portion of the Con- 

 tinental Divide. Rising in the mountains of north- 

 ern Colorado, the river flows in a northerly direction 

 into Wyoming, where, after traversing half the state, 

 it turns to the southeast and continues in a south- 

 easterly direction to its junction with the South 

 Platte in central Nebraska. These geographical fea- 

 tures determine largely the principal characteristics 

 of the stream. During the spring and early summer 

 the melting snows of the mountains swell its volume 

 to large proportions, while in the late summer the 

 long continued drouths shrink its volume to that of 

 a small stream distributed over a wide stretch of 

 shifting sands. On account of this irregularity of 

 flow, it was found necessary to provide means for 

 the storage of the flood waters of the spring and 

 early summer, in order that they might be delivered 

 to the thirsty lands under the various canals evenly 

 throughout the season. To meet this necessity the 

 Pathfinder Reservoir was built. This Reservoir re- 

 ceives the drainage from about 12,000 square miles, 

 and the river has an average run-off of 1,400,000 acre 

 feet at Pathfinder dam. The area of the reservoir 

 at the level of the spillway is 22,600 acres, and the 

 capacity is 1,070,000 acre feet. The dam is one of 

 the largest masonry dams in the world, rising 218 

 feet above the rock foundation. It is 432 feet long 

 and 10 feet wide on the top and is 80 feet long and 

 90 feet wide on the bottom. It contains 60,210 cubic 

 yards of masonry. In connection with the dam there 

 have been constructed two tunnels, respectively 480 

 feet and 360 feet in length, through which the stored 

 waters are supplied to the river for diversion at 

 points farther down the stream, the discharge being 

 regulated by high pressure gates. On the north side 

 of the river a spillway 600 feet long has been cut in 

 solid rock adjacent to the dam to allow the discharge 

 of surplus water after the reservoir is filled. Near 

 the south end of the dam an earthen dike has been 

 built to close a gap in the wall of the reservoir, which 

 was lower than the spillway. Inland reservoirs on 

 the Interstate Unit add about 78,000 acre feet to the 

 available water supply of this unit. These are filled 

 in the early spring and late fall by carrying water 



which would otherwise be wasted^ from the river 

 through the canal. 



Items of Historical Interest 



The country embraced within the project of the 

 North Platte was probably well known earlier than 

 almost any other portion of the West. The return- 

 ing Astorians, in 1812, passed down the North Platte 

 River, making their first winter camp of that year 

 at the town of Bessemer, fifteen miles above Casper, 

 and later in the vicinity of the State line between 

 Nebraska and Wyoming, in all probability very 

 close to the present town of Mitchell the head- 

 quarters of the Reclamation Service. First, the in- 

 trepid hunter and trapper blazed the way, and later 

 the fur-trading companies pushed into the North 

 Platte Valley, and, in 1834, established a trading 

 post on the site of the present town of old Fort 

 Laramie, which was maintained by them until taken 

 over by the Government in 1849, when it became one 

 of the most prominent posts on the transcontinental 

 route. This route was followed by the California 

 gold seekers and by the Mormons in their migration 

 westward. To read "The Adventures of Captain 

 Bonneville" and "Astoria," by Washington Irving, 

 the discoveries of John C. Fremont, histories of 'Mor- 

 mon emigration and the "Forty-niners," and later of 

 "Wild Bill" and "Buffalo Bill," reveals this valley as 

 rich in historical interest. The discoveries of Pro- 

 fessor March, and others, of the pre-historic horse 

 and the great saurians make the region one of un- 

 usual interest to the student of the earth's history. 

 On the other hand, the settler and the homebuilder 

 passed it by and settled to the north or south, or 

 pushed on to Utah and California. The great high- 

 way, 200 feet in width, now overgrown and only dis- 

 tinguished from the general surroundings by the 

 difference in vegetation, stretches on mile after mile. 

 It is marked here and there by a grave, the occupant 

 snatched from the eager horde pressing over west; 

 name, age, date forgotten; whether the victim of 

 disease or savage, unknown. But occasionally we 

 may read something like this on a rare headstone: 

 "Amanda, beloved consort of William Smith, born 

 May 5, 1831 ; died of cholera July 10, 1850." It re- 

 quires little imagination to weave a romance around 

 such an epitaph in such a place. Again, the name 

 Scotts Bluff recalls the tragedy of a lonely death, 

 Irving relates, in his "Adventures of Captain Bonne- 

 ville," how a party, "encamped amid high and beetl- 

 ing cliffs of indurated clay and sandstone, bearing 

 the semblance of towers, churches, and fortified 

 cities," recalled the melancholy circumstances from 

 which the fantastic bluffs received their name, the 

 story of one of an unfortunate party, a man by the 

 name of Scott, who, after abandonment by his com- 



