te an BE i ie 
WN. OY. STAT. 
COLLEGE oe kcricuLtd STS, RESERVOIRS, AND STREAM FLOW 
all kinds since these estimates were prepared, it must be expected 
that these works, if ever built, will cost from 25 to 50% more than 
the estimates. Three of the projected dams are of the relatively cheap 
rock-fill construction, which would be inapplicable to most of the Ohio 
dams from considerations of safety. 
The controlling element, however, in the unit estimate, is the 
Mississippi system, whose capacity is nearly one-third of the whole 
group considered and whose unit cost is only about one-seventh of 
the average cost of the others. The use of the Mississippi reservoirs 
in any way as a basis of estimate for the Ohio system is wholly 
inadmissible because of the dissimilarity of sites. The Ohio sites, 
with one exception, are dry sites—totally different from the lakes 
of Minnesota. Even the latter reservoirs could not now be built for 
three times what they have actually cost the Government. The flow- 
age lands embraced about 80000 acres, which: were nearly all reserved 
while yet belonging to the Government. A few recent purchases of 
additional lands found necessary, and the experience now being met in 
acquiring the flowage rights for a reservoir at Gull Lake, show that, 
if these lands were to be bought to-day, they would cost from $10 to 
$25 per acre. The right of way alone would now cost twice as much 
as the dams. 
Compare any one of these structures—Leech Lake, for example— 
with a representative masonry dam like the Cheesman Dam on the 
South Fork of the South Platte River above Denver, Colo. The writer 
is familiar with both sites, and once submitted a plan and estimate 
for a structure on the Cheesman site almost exactly like the one built. 
Lake Cheesman is a more favorable site than most of those on the 
Ohio system, for, although its capacity is not as great as some, the 
dam site is exceptionally advantageous, one of the most perfect in 
Nature—a very narrow gorge in solid granite, with a natural spillway 
already provided. In several of the Ohio sites, entire towns will have 
to be removed, important railroads will have to be re-located, a few 
mineral properties will be destroyed, and, in nearly all, road systems 
will be seriously disarranged. None of these conditions were en- 
countered to anything like the same extent in the Cheesman site. 
Undoubtedly its unit cost, which ig estimated at about $250 per 
1000 000 cu. ft., was as low as can be possibly realized on the Ohio 
system as a whole. Compare this with less than $5 for Leech Lake 
or $8 for the whole Mississippi system! 
