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The National Geographic Magazine 



mation Service constructing one of the 

 most spectacular works ever attempted 

 in the West, a great tunnel nearly six 

 miles in length and passing under a 

 mountain 2,000 feet high. The history 

 of this project is one of danger, daring, 

 and heroism. Flowing in deep canyons 

 in places more than half a mile below the 

 surface of the country, over precipices, 

 through narrow gorges, the Gunnison 

 Canyon had never been explored until Mr 

 A. L. Fellows of the Reclamation Service 

 and one companion essayed the feat. 



They fastened their instruments and 

 provisions on an inflated rubber mattress 

 and set forth upon what proved to be a 

 most thrilling and exciting adventure. 

 Over a greater portion of the trip they 

 were so far below the party which fol- 

 lowed them along the brink of the canyon 

 that no voices could reach them. At 

 other points they were lost from sight, 

 during which time the anxious watchers 

 were fearful of their safety. After sev- 

 eral days they finally emerged by way of 

 the Devil's Slide, having in the last hours 

 of the trip suffered a loss of their boat, 

 their instruments, and provisions, and 

 narrowly escaped death. 



Fortunately Mr Fellows had his notes 

 in oil skins secured to his person. From 

 these notes it was possible to select a site 

 in the canyon for a tunnel through which 

 the waters of the Gunnison River will be 

 carried to supplement the insufficient 

 flow of the Uncompahgre River, and 

 thereby make fertile 130,000 acres of 

 land in the valley of the latter stream. 

 The Reclamation Service is doing this 

 work under force account, owing to the 

 failure of the contractors to comply with 

 the regulations. More than 6,700 feet of 

 this great underground waterway are 

 now completed and the work is being 

 pushed forward vigorously night and 

 day. It will be completed in 1908. The 

 tunnel and canal system will cost about 

 $3,000,000. 



THE PATHFINDER DAM IN WYOMING 



Proceeding to the northward, we find 



progress is being made in the construc- 

 tion of another great dam, the Path- 

 finder, which is located upon the exact 

 spot where General John C. Fremont 

 nearly lost his life while attempting to 

 pass through the Platte River Canyon in 

 a boat. This dam will have a height of 

 210 feet and will create a reservoir stor- 

 ing more than a million acre-feet. It will 

 prevent for all time to come the disas- 

 trous floods on the North Platte, which 

 annually destroy property valued at many 

 times the cost of this structure. In con- 

 nection with this dam there is being con- 

 structed an interstate canal 140 miles 

 long and covering 200,000 acres in east- 

 ern Wyoming and western Nebraska. Its 

 route is along the old overland trail. 



THE HIGHEST MASONRY ARCH IN THE 

 WORLD 



In northern Wyoming, near the spot 

 that Mr Seton-Thompson has made fa- 

 mous as the resting place of Wahb, the 

 grizzly, work is now under way on the 

 Shoshone dam, a concrete masonry arch 

 and the highest structure of its kind in 

 the world. It will lock a very narrow 

 granite canyon, so that in cubical contents 

 it will not compare with any one of 

 several other dams, but in its great height 

 it tops them all. From bed rock to top 

 it will be 310 feet high. At its base it is 

 only 85 feet long, and on top only 200 

 feet. The bed-rock conditions at this site 

 proved a great surprise to the engineers. 

 On first investigation it was thought that 

 the river flowed on a granite foundation, 

 but when the diamond drills were brought 

 in they went down 88 feet in places be- 

 fore finding a permanent base. Boulders 

 38 feet in thickness were penetrated rest- 

 ing on beds of sand and gravel. The site 

 of the dam is in an almost inaccessible 

 region, and, as in Arizona, it was neces- 

 sary to construct a road up the canyon 

 for several miles. This is destined to be 

 one of the new routes to Yellowstone 

 Park, and it will become popular by 

 reason of the scenic beauties which it 

 opens up. The Shoshone project, with 



