Millions for Moisture 



233 



educational advantages, and tends to the 

 economical and most profitable methods 

 of farming. Small farms, carefully and 

 scientifically tilled, make compact com- 

 munities, which enjoy graded schools and 

 the luxuries and comforts of towns with 

 the freedom and pure air of the country. 



The principal feature of this project is 

 the Engle dam, about 100 miles north of 

 El Paso, Texas. It is to be a huge struc- 

 ture of masonry 255 feet high, 400 feet 

 long on the bottom, and 1,150 feet long 

 on the top. This dam will impound 

 2,000,000 acre-feet of water, or nearly 

 double the amount stored by the Roose- 

 velt dam. It will check the greatest flood 

 ever known on the Rio Grande and will 

 supply 180,000 acres in New Mexico, 

 Texas, and Old Mexico. The estimated 

 cost of the entire project is $7,200,000. 

 One million dollars of this amount has 

 already been appropriated by Congress 

 to meet the proportionate cost of the 

 works required to irrigate the lands in 

 Mexico. These lands were formerly irri- 

 gated by canals taken from the river in 

 Old Mexico, but the extensive diversions 

 in Colorado and New Mexico finally ren- 

 dered these canals useless, and the land 

 went back to desert. 



The Hondo project, near Roswell, New 

 Mexico, now almost completed, provides 

 for the storage of the flood flow of the 

 Rio Hondo in a natural depression and 

 supplies 10,000 acres of land. 



The Carlsbad project was undertaken 

 by the Service to save from destruction 

 the property of settlers near Carlsbad. A 

 great flood destroyed the irrigation works 

 in the valley, and the valuable orchards 

 and cultivated fields would have returned 

 to desert but for the coming of the gov- 

 ernment. About 20,000 acres are em- 

 braced in this project, which involves an 

 expenditure of $650,000, and will be com- 

 pleted in 1908. It will irrigate a consid- 

 erable acreage next spring. 



IN MONTANA AND WYOMING 



There will be an opportunity for home- 

 seekers to secure choice farms in western 



Montana next summer, when the Hunt- 

 ley project is formally opened. About 

 35,000 acres are involved in this project 

 and the lands are exceedingly desirable. 

 As this project is in the ceded portion of 

 the Crow Indian reservation, no settlers 

 have been permitted to locate thereon and 

 the formal opening next summer prom- 

 ises to be somewhat spectacular. 



Across the line, in Wyoming, is the 

 great Shoshone project, involving several 

 difficult engineering feats. In tlie nar- 

 rowest part of the Shoshone Canyon a 

 wonderful dam is beginning to rise above 

 the river bed. In height it tops every 

 other structure of the kind in tlie world. 

 It will be a narrow wedge, 85 feet across 

 the bottom, 200 feet long on top, and 310 

 feet high, and will block the canyon. To 

 reach the dam site it was necessary to 

 construct a road through an inaccessible 

 gorge. On this road are several tunnels 

 through rock cliffs, and for several miles 

 the road is in rock cuts. It opens a new 

 and very attractive scenic route to the 

 National Yellowstone Park. 



Below the city of Cody, Wyoming, a 

 diversion dam is being constructed in the 

 river, and the stream is to be diverted 

 into a great tunnel three miles long, pass- 

 ing under an elevated plateau. From the 

 lower end of the tunnel canals extending 

 all over the valley will carry the water to 

 180,000 acres. 



TUNNELING A MOUNTAIN A WORLD'S 



RECORD 



The Uncompahgre project, in Colo- 

 rado, in many respects has presented 

 more difficult problems than any other 

 work undertaken by the Service. The 

 engineers from the very first step have 

 encountered trouble. The topography of 

 the country is probably the roughest in 

 the United States. Here was a canyon 

 through which no man had ever passed. 

 It was necessary to explore it in order to 

 locate a site for a tunnel. An engineer 

 and an assistant made the attempt, and 

 after incredible hardships succeeded. The 

 topographers who followed to complete 



