112 



In preparing to build the ditch, the first step was to 

 place a sawmill on Twelvemile river, and thus to obtain 

 the lumber for construction. Then an electric generating 

 plant was erected and the wires were strung on poles for 

 36 miles (57 km.), transmitting power from Little Twelve- 

 mile river to Bonanza creek. While this was being done, 

 surveys for the ditch were hastened ; and as soon as these 

 were completed, the right-of-way was cleared. The 

 small growth of forest was removed, and the moss stripped 

 from the frozen ground for a width of 22 yards (19 m.) 

 Steam shovels were then put to work, and while they were 

 digging the ditch, the sawmill on the Twelvemile yielded 

 the lumber needed for the construction of the flume and 

 for other purposes. Seven million feet (board measure) of 

 lumber were cut; this depleted the small forest in the 

 vicinity, but it proved sufficient. 



In connection with building the ditch, "roads of the 

 corduroy type have been constructed, moss being laid on 

 the poles and dirt on the moss. The trails traverse the 

 brush in straight lines. Horses and men, steam and 

 muscle, have fought against the wilderness and subdued 

 it. The big ditch looks like a Panama canal, and the 

 steam-shovels gnawing and digging in the deep cuts recall 

 pictures of Culebra. Many of the labourers had worked 

 on the Isthmian canal, and assuredly the young engineers 

 were as proud of the work they were accomplishing as if it 

 were a national or even an international enterprise." 

 [64]. 



About 14 hydraulic properties were operated in 191 2 

 on the different hills and gulches along Bonanza and Hunker 

 creeks, the majority of these being on Bonanza creek 

 below Grand Forks. These hydraulic properties are 

 equipped with auxiliary pipe lines from the main water 

 system, gates, tunnels, cuts, sluiceways, and giants from 

 which the streams of water are driven with a pressure of 

 upward of 100 pounds to the inch (7 kilogrammes to the 

 square centimetre) and strike the banks with a roar that 

 can be heard for miles. 



The company's hydro-electric power plant is operated 

 by water from Little Twelvemile river carried through 5 

 miles (8 km.) of flume and delivered to the plant under 

 650 feet (197 m.) net effective head. The installation 

 consists of three 650 K.W. generators, direct connected 

 to three water wheels of the impulse type. The main 

 transmission here is 36 miles (57 km.) in length, operating 



