HOME-MAKTNG BY THE GOVERNMENT 



2 57 



zens of the United States. The irrigable 

 lands are reached by the Chicago, Bur- 

 lington and Quincy Railway. 



NORTH PLATTE PROJECT 



In southern Wyoming another large 

 work is well under way. The structure 

 known as the Pathfinder dam is being 

 erected in a narrow canyon of the North 

 Platte River at the identical point where 

 General John C. Fremont, the noted ex- 

 plorer, nearly lost his life while attempt- 

 ing to get through in a boat. This struc- 

 ture will be 215 feet high and will create 

 an enormous reservoir with a storage 

 capacity of 1,025,000 acre-feet, or enough 

 water to cover 1,025,000 acres a foot 

 •deep. To better appreciate the quantity 

 of water in this reservoir it should be un- 

 derstood that it is sufficiently capacious 

 to hold back the greatest flood ever 

 known in this turbulent stream. In con- 

 nection with this dam and reservoir the 

 government has built a large canal 95 

 miles in length to carry the waters onto 

 lands in Wyoming and Nebraska. 

 Owing to the rough country along the 

 canal route, several large concrete via- 

 ducts were constructed and for several 

 miles the canal is lined with cement. The 

 irrigable lands are tributary to the Chi- 

 cago and Northwestern, Chicago, Bur- 

 lington and Quincy, and the Union Pa- 

 cific Railway systems. 



B^LLE EOURCHE PROJECT, SOUTH DAKOTA 



Northeast of the Black Hills, in South 

 Dakota, lies the beautiful valley of the 

 Belle Fourche, embracing several hun- 

 dred thousand acres of exceedingly 

 fertile land. In this valley the Reclama- 

 tion Service has nearly completed a great 

 work for the irrigation of 100,000 acres. 



By means of a concrete diversion dam 

 the entire flow of the Belle Fourche River 

 will be diverted into an inlet canal 6 l / 2 

 miles in length and large enough to carry 

 the minimum flow of the Potomac River 

 at Point of Rocks. This canal turns the 

 water into a natural depression between 

 two hills. This depression is blocked by 

 one of the largest earthen embankments 

 in the world, a structure more than a 



mile in length and 115 feet in maximum 

 height. The reservoir thus formed has a 

 storage capacity of 203,770 acre-feet, and 

 forms the largest lake in the State of 

 South Dakota. 



Home-seekers have been pouring into 

 this valley for the last two years, and 

 nearly all of the public land is now occu- 

 pied by settlers who are awaiting the 

 completion of the works. The towns in 

 the valleys have more than doubled in 

 population since the work began. There 

 are opportunities for home-seekers to se- 

 cure land from private owners whose 

 holdings are in excess of the requirements 

 of the Reclamation Act. The principal 

 markets for the products of this valley 

 are the mining towns in the Black Hills, 

 the Twin Cities, also Omaha and Chicago, 

 which are reached by the Chicago and 

 Northwestern and Chicago, Burlington 

 and Quincy railways. Back of the irri- 

 gated country is a vast area of public 

 lands which is available for ranging 

 cattle and sheep. The principal products 

 will be alfalfa, cereals, vegetables, and the 

 hardy fruits. 



GARDEN CITY PROJECT, KANSAS 



In southwestern Kansas the Garden 

 City Project, although embracing only 

 8,000 acres, is relatively one of the im- 

 portant government works in the Plains 

 region. Owing to the numerous novel 

 features involved in its construction, the 

 project has attracted much attention. It 

 is believed that the successful initiation of 

 this system will encourage private capital 

 to take up work in other parts of the 

 Arkansas Valley and elsewhere on the 

 Great Plains. 



As the Arkansas River could not be de- 

 pended upon to supply water to gravity 

 canals, the engineers devised a scheme to 

 utilize the underflow. About 300 wells 

 were sunk, the combined length of which 

 exceeds 4 miles. These wells are in 

 groups of 12 each and vary from 12 to 

 15 inches in diameter. Each group will 

 be operated by its own pumping plant, 

 and all pumps will be operated by elec- 

 tricity generated in a central power 

 station. The water from the wells will be 



