BOULDER DAM

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22530, 12 October 1938, Page 16

BOULDER DAM

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«A TREMENDOUS UNDER-

TAKING ”

“The Boulder dam is a tremendous undertaking and has got to be seen before one can get a real conception of it.” said Mr J. R. McKenzie, m addressing the Christchurch Rotary Club yesterday on his recent visit to the United States. “We were amazed at the enormous amount of concrete, * an h at the immense size of the construction as it is to-day. controlling the wild Colorado river.” Before the Boulder dam was constructed. farmers, tempted by the dry. fertile desert soil, tapped the river for irrigation purposes, but the unregulated Colorado river took its vengeancß upon them. Annually it sent destructive floods apd annually cut off by fading to a trickle. Farmers in the Imperial valley and elsewhere along this stretch of river were now provided with regular irrigation, and the domestic water supply for 13 cities, 250 west of the Colorado, was also supplied from this source. As a result of the construction of the Boulder dam, a lake, 115 miles

long, and covering 146,000 acres, had been formed. Below the Colorado dam there were about 1.900,000 acres of land capable of being served by it, and at present about half of this area was irrigated and in production. The dam generated 835,000 horse-power of electricity, which was being sold under contract, and it would return its entire cost plus interest within 50 years