Winning the West 



8 9 



and flow across a broad, level flat. Here 

 2,000 men are at work erecting the 

 Roosevelt dam, which is to be one of the 

 highest in the world, exceeded in height 

 by only one other, and that also a struc- 

 ture of the Reclamation Service. The 

 Roosevelt dam will be of uncoursed rub- 

 ble masonry (sandstone and cement) 

 with arch upstream. It will be 800 feet 

 long on top, 235 feet at river bed, and its 

 contents will be 300,000 cubic yards. It 

 will rise 284 feet above the lowest foun- 

 dations, and the height of water against 

 the dam will be 230 feet. A power canal 

 18 miles long with a drop of 220 feet is 

 now being utilized to furnish 4,000 horse- 

 power in constructing the works. 



THE GOVERNMENT IS MAKING ITS OWN 

 CEMENT 



When the reservoir is completed the 

 water will flow in the river channel for 

 44 miles, and then be diverted by means 

 of canals to the irrigable lands. In the 

 construction of the dam 240,000 barrels 

 of cement are required. The question of 

 cement was not the least of the problems 

 which troubled the minds of the en- 

 gineers. The isolation of the dam site — 

 60 miles from a railroad — and a tendency 

 on the part of cement manufacturers to 

 put as high a value on their product as 

 they thought it would bear, offered a 

 problem which nearly stumped the en- 

 gineers. The first bids were $9 a barrel, 

 making the item of cement a matter of 

 more than $2,000,000 alone. Then it was 

 that the engineer with the geological 

 bump got busy. A hasty reconnaissance 

 of the nearby country disclosed the fact 

 that a ledge of splendid limestone out- 

 cropped just above the dam site, while 

 hills of blue clay were within a short dis- 

 tance. Notwithstanding the vigorous 

 protests of the cement manufacturers and 

 their offer of cement at about half the 

 price of former figures, the Secretary of 

 the Interior authorized the building of a 

 cement mill. This mill has been in suc- 

 cessful operation for several months and 

 is turning out 250 barrels of first-class 



cement every day, at a cost which will 

 save the settlers of the Salt River Valley 

 more than a million dollars on the price 

 first offered by the trust. 



THE MOST CAPACIOUS RESERVOIR IN THE 

 WORLD 



The question of supplies was an im- 

 portant one, and to meet the conditions a 

 wagon road was constructed, to the cost 

 of which the municipalities of Phcenix, 

 Mesa, and Tempe contributed $75,000. 

 This road was constructed by the govern- 

 ment engineers, and not by contract, and 

 is one of the most spectacular pieces of 

 engineering in the west. For more than 

 40 miles it is in the canyon of the Salt 

 River, many miles having been blasted 

 from the precipitous walls. The day 

 laborers were mostly Apache Indians, 

 remnants of Geronimo's band. The road 

 opens up a new region of beautiful scen- 

 ery, and when the great dam is completed 

 the Tonto reservoir and the Roosevelt 

 dam will attract the transcontinental vis- 

 itor. The reservoir created by the dam 

 will be one of the largest artificial lakes 

 in the world. Its capacity will be ten 

 times greater than the Croton reservoir. 

 It will contain more water than is stored 

 by the Assouan dam. One million four- 

 hundred thousand acre-feet, or enough 

 water to cover that many acres a foot 

 deep, will be held in this basin until 

 needed by the farmers in the valley be- 

 low. At the present time in the lowest 

 part of the reservoir site is a thriving 

 city called Roosevelt, with a population 

 of nearly 2,000; a city with electric lights, 

 water works, school-houses, stores, and 

 churches, which will be submerged more 

 than 200 feet when the dam is completed. 

 Ten thousand horse-power will be de- 

 veloped from the dam and from drops 

 in the canals, all of which will be utilized 

 to pump the underground water of the 

 valley to lands above the gravity systems. 



WHERE COURAGE WAS EVEN MORE NECES- 

 SARY THAN ENGINEERING SKILL 



Coming northward into western Colo- 

 rado we find the engineers of the Recla- 



