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Transactions Texas Academy of Science. [66] 
Green county, for irrigation purposes, the most elaborate of which is the 
Cunningham dam, near the site of the old town of Ben Ficklin. 
The only two power plants in Tom Green county at present are located 
on the outfalls of the Baze and Bismarck irrigation ditches. The former 
belongs to Thos. Vinson, and is one-half mile north of Knickerbocker* 
on the Baze ditch. The water for power purposes is that furnished by 
the irrigation ditch, which is the feeder both of the irrigation system 
and the power plant. The head on the turbine is fifteen feet, and the 
length of tail race from the gin to the creek is 1000 yards. It is esti- 
mated that fifteen horse powers are developed by the 24-inch turbine, 
and this is used in operating the 70-saw gin. The cost of the whole 
power plant was $1400. 
Ten miles south of San Angelo, on the Bismarck ditch that takes its 
waters from the South Concho, is located the power plant of Payne & 
Jones, which operates the Bismarck gin. The dam on the river that 
deflects the water to the ditch is four feet high and is built of cedar tim- 
ber, brush and stone. At the gin on the ditch there is a fall of eighteen 
feet, but the turbine is an old-fashioned one and its efficiency is estimated 
at about thirty per cent. The plant is run ten hours per day during the 
ginning season. 
.Near San Angel 0 ° n the main Concho a dam is being erected by the 
Concho Water Company, of which J. L. Millspaugh is manager. The 
dam is to be a combination of steel and stone, securely bolted to the rock 
bed of the river. The main part across the river proper is to consist of 
a steel frame work, which is to extend into the stone abutments. The 
length of the spillway is to be 166.5 feet, and its height eleven feet, while 
the height of the massive stone abutments is to be eighteen feet. The 
dam deflects the water into a canal 800 feet long, fifteen feet bottom 
Width, twenty-five feet top width, and an average depth of seven feet. A 
head of seventeen feet will be obtained at the power house at the lower 
end of the canal. The power generated is to be utilized in operating the 
waterworks, pumps, dynamos, and for irrigation purposes. The surplus 
power will be sold to power users in San Angelo. 
Across the Concho river, at Paint Rock, the county site of Concho 
county, thirty miles below San Angelo, a dam four feet high and 180 
feet long has been constructed of stone and lumber. The dam belongs to 
J. F. Ford & Son, was built in 1896, and the power is used to operate the 
city waterworks, a mill and gin. The wheel is an undershort paddle 
wheel sixteen feet in diameter, and in addition to operating the gin, it 
pumps water into a reservoir forty-two feet above the town level. The I 
water supply here is unfailing and is amply sufficient for all demands. 
About eleven miles from Goldthwaite, in Mills county, J. D. Willis 
(postoffice, R a tier) has constructed a dam of logs, rock and gravel, four 
feet high, across the Colorado river. The power developed is used in 
