AN ENGINEERING FEAT

Western Star, 13 August 1912, Page 2

AN ENGINEERING FEAT

A remarkable piece of irrigation engineering is bomg completed in the ft fate of Utah by the United (States Reclamation Service. On one side of the Wasatch Mountains lies a broad valley, containing some 00,000 acres of fertile land, which is only partially productive because it lacks water. Beyond the mountains is the Strawberry River, which discharges its waters into the Colorado River, without performing useful service at all. The problem that confronted the engineers was how to bring the river and the parched soil together, and it has been solved by means of a tunnel four miles long through the mountains. The tunnel is eight feet high and about seven feet wide, and is lined with cement. A preliminary step was the diversion of another river at a point nearly forty miles away, into a canal t hree miles long in order that the waters might bo used for power purposes. A fall of one hundred feet was secured, and tho electricity generated by a series of turbines was convoyed to the site of tho tunnel, where it operated the drills and provided light and heat. Tho tunnel is situated 7000 feet above sea level, and during the last two winters, work has been in progress, it isolated for months at a time heavy snow-drifts. But the boring ttJs proceeded without interruption. At tho valley end of the tunnel a dam is being constructed, and when the water is diverted a storage lake, covering about 8000 acres, will be brought into existence. The irrigated farms lower down the valley will thus bo assured of a continuous supply of water in the dry seasons, when the Strawberry River fails. About one thousand small fanns will bo made richly productive by this scheme, and access to markets will be given by three railway linos, which- ahleadjy traverse) the irrigated area. American genius is showing itself capable of meeting the new conditions that have been created by the exhaustion of the well-watered land of tho republic.