426 MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW. MARCH, 1911
THE ROOSEVELT DAM AND THE SALT RIVER PROJECT, IN ARIZONA.
By L. N. JESUNOFSKY, Section Director.
The great Roosevelt Dam, located on the Salt River, at the confluence of Tonto Creek, near the lofty peaks of the Sierra Anchas, constructed under the provisions of the reclamation act of June 17, 1902, was dedicated b Col. Theodore Roosevelt on March 18, 1911, The Sd River reservoir site is 76 miles due east of Phoenix,
Phoenix, Ariz., we learn that the capacity of the reservoir is 1,284,205 acre-feet. The foundation of this great pile
of masonry rests in bedrock, 40 feet below datum, or river level. At the base it is 235 feet long, between the canyon walls, and 170 feet wide. From the river level to the crest of the spillway, at both ends of the dam, the hei ht
storage. The spillways are bridged, and over the bridges and the top of the dam runs the only highway in that ,
region connectin the mountain country on the north and
is 220 feet, that being the greatest depth of possi B le
south 8 :=~ of !3 -I + River. This rc--’way :- Y fc-+
FIG. 1.-Roosevelt Dam.
greater portion 6f the re ion under irrigation being signed up to the Salt River $alley Water Users’ Association. This corporation represents the farmers of the Salt River Valley in their dealings with the Government, they guar- anteeing the payment of the cost of construction. The im ounding of the waters from the upper Salt
basin creates a reservoir 25 miles in length and from 1 to
3 miles in width. According to facts and figures obtained from Mr. L. C. Hill, supervising en ineer, United States Reclamation
River an cp Tonto Creek drainage areas in this natural
Service, the Repub f ican, and the Arizona Magazine,
above the highest storage and is protected by a coping 4
feet high; thus making the distance from the bottom of the foundation to the top stone of the coping 284 feet. The general appearance of the dam is curved, arching upstream, and at the top is 680 feet long and 16 feet wide,
so that the length, inclusive of the bridges over the spill- ways, is 1,080 feet. The spillways are blasted from the mountain sides, and the bridges over them angle a little upstream from the ends of the dam. In the work of construction 339,400 cubic yards of masonry were used, every stone of which was thorou hly washed before it was permanently cemented in pace. f
MARCH, ,191 1. MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW. 427
In the building of the dam and auxiliary works 338,452 barrels of cement were used, all manufactured in the immediate vicinity of the dam, at a cost of $1,063,542.36, in a cement mill erected by the Government. The cost was $3.14 er barrel, as against $4.89 er barrel, the best rivate bi a available when operations Lgan. The nianu- Facture of cement on the ground effected a saving of
$592 300, or $2.50 er acre for each acre signed to the Salt kiver Valley d' ater Users' Association. The dam was constructed by John M. O'Rourke & Po.? of Galveston, Tex., to whoni the contract was awarded on A ril 8, 1905. The first stone was laic1 in the founda- tion kptember 20, 1906; the last stone was laid on the coping on February 6,1911. The upper face of the dam is almost perpendicular. The lower face retreats in pyram- idal form, huge stone steps, from a width of 170 feet at, the foundation to 16 feet a t the top.
AUXILIARY WORKS.
No less interesting are the auxiliar and corelated
for generating 5,000 horsepower, and what is termed the power canal., built to o erate the first unit of the electric
canal is a ditc P 1, heading a t the intake dam, which diverts water from the Salt River, 193 miles above Roosevelt, and skirting the highjine of the reservoir, reaches the Roosevelt Dam site on the mountain side a t about the same eleva- tion as the top of the Roosevelt Dam.
works, such as the cement mill, the hy B roelectric plants
plant, creatin power Y or dani construction. The power
INTAKE DAM AND POWER CANAL.
The intake dam was built exclusive1 to serve the power
prqject given attention. As mentioned, it is 400 feet 1011 ,
of concrete, although the dam is a little higher than is necessary to divert the normal flow of the river. The ower canal is somewhat circuitous, following the high [ne of the reservoir, and in its 193 miles i t crosses two immense mroyas, or ducks under them by means of con- crete siphons that were in themselves interesting engi- neering problems.
canal, and with i t was among the w rst features of the
with gates and diversion works at the south end, all bui f t
ROOSEVELT POWER HOUSE.
The power house is an immense stone structure, so
large in fact that it would look like a business block if located in a city. It stands just below the huge dam, from the top of which one looks down upon its large flat roof. Withm are the turbines fed through an imniense penstock of steel, runnin through the dam about halfway
similar size and appearance stands several hundred yards down the canyon containin the machinery for trans-
large ower line that carries it westward to Phoenix, Mesa, I;'empe, and Sacaton for comniercial use.
up its side and controlle 5 by gates. Another building of
forming the current, being t % e reservoir terminus of t.he
DISCHARGE OF WATER.
Skirting the north end of the dani, almost under the spillway, and driven through solid rock, is Tunnel No. 2,
which is 115 feet above the river bed. Its sole mission is for releasing irn ation water when the reservoir shall contain a certain B epth above that elevation, and when
it is desired bo release a greater quantity than will come through the constantly running penstock supplying the power house. The third exit for stored water, one that is most necessary but will be least used, and the largest of all,
is known as the sluicing tunnel, or tunnel No. 1. It was driven through the solid mountain circling the south end of the site, at the river level, before the construction of the dam began. It will be used for sluicing silt, if nec- essary, and for releasing a larger irrigation supply than the penstock furnishes,. if needed, when the water eleva- tion in the reservoir is below the entrance to tunnel No. 2.
ROOSEVELT ROAD.
construction features was the build-
site. Of this, 32 miles is across a desert and.38 miles through the most impressive mountain scenery in the West. The road was constructed for permanencp and though crooked and often winding around the ace of cliffs it is as fine a thoroughfare as a city street. The road cost $206,000, of which amount Phoenix and Mesa con- tributed $71,000, recognizing its commercial value to the
, rather than have a road constructed to the dam site valleT rom Globe, the nearest railroad point in another direction, and which offered almost unsurmountable engineering difficulties in the matter of road building on the Gila-Salt divide. The sun1 of $147,000 has been spent in betterment and maintenance, making the total cost of this ermanent and now famous scenic $353,000. 8ver this road d l of the machinery, 01, and other supplies used in the construction of the dam were hauled b mule teams, and it is to-day a perfect moun-
velt Road the Territory has undertaken and in large part constructed, a system of Territoriai highways, to cross Arizona north and south and east and west. The Roosevelt Road has been utilized as a very important section of the ea% and west highway.
60 miles long, from Mesa City, the railroad point, to the Roosevelt Dam
Yhway
tain bou T evard. Since the construction of the Roose-
GOVERNMENT SAWMILL.
Not only was the u per Salt River drawn upon for a
canal, but the upper Tonto Creek, the mouth of which forms the other arm of the reservoir, contributed its ortion. A vast amount of lumber was needed for the Euilding of the cement mill, the houses necessary in the engineering cam and for multifarious pur ses, before
Mountains, where, 30 miles northeast of Roosevelt, the Government erected a sawmill and built a fine mountain
3,000,000 feet of lumber was sawed in* this mi brou ht to the dam site over the new Government road,
. The mill, like the other plants that served their ay, was disposed of to the best advantage.
construction resource t K rough the intake dam and power
of t P e masonr could begin. F onto Creek winds the l a c y ac into the pine-cid forests of the Sierra Ancha
road leading to it. In the early. days of the yjeec,"
rde
for t f e most part down
OLD TOWN OF ROOSEVELT.
From the very beginning there was need of many laborers at the dam site and in the auxiliary works. These made their abidin places in shacks, on a bench of the river bank now su Q merged. Their presence drew
428 MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW. MAROH, 1911
, but all of lumber, for it was known in
$JG:%ts buildin that it would be a doomed town. In the mefUlthe the question Of building new canals
A post office was esta % lished and the town grew until it and remodeling the old ones came up, and has
became a village of several hundred inhabitants, with a been ed the latter lan Of the Origlnd canals considerable social life, apart from the engineering camp having been {ought by t ,e bovernment, with money
on the hill. When the dam reached a greater height charged to the eYCe t the Tern e System and 8
above datum the hour of danger was announced, and art of the Ut& hanil.- d e north si : e systems were there was a hasty moving of houses to the new and resent %Ought &st, ears &go, On what W a s considered town site on the flat around the mountain above t e dam fair the JOvernment Pay;% what it would have cost to arallel them. The main canal on the north
DISTRIBUTION OF WATER. the largest and the longest and headed at the extreme eastern end Of the Valley, its head being nearest to the dam Site from which the stored water, when released, Would course westerly down the river channel some 55
miles to the canal head. The other north side canals
were then, and still are, served through the Arizona Canal b a crosscut canal some 15 miles below its head. Most
o
water was diverted
tradesmen, restaurants, and markets, with a better class OLD CANALS BOUGHT.
Or
R
side was, an 3 still is, known as the Arizona Canal. It was
The distributing system is no l e a interesting than the storage project, tliough no sin le feature is so p a t . Its devising
feats but wa8 beset by a muc., may of
perpieXing and irritating questions of legality, justice, economy, and feasibility. the reclamation act w&s passed there were in operation in the Salt River Valley, on both sides of the mer, no fewer than 11 main canal systems, of private ownershi , dealing with the farmem by various plans and hold? diversion rights from the river of varying The Granite Reef Dam, built mainly for the purpose
priority. y o m e of the owners of the canah sold the of diverting the flood waters from the Vercle River and water direct, and were cooperative, while others sold the stored water from the Roosevelt reservoir into the hts which the water user must own before canals, is located 28 miles up the Salt River from Phoenix.
va&e m themselves, whether the owners possessed land between the diversion works on either side, and 38 feet or not. A few general rinciples were enunciated by the high where the river channel is deepest. The cost was Prom the south end of the these provisions being that the water is a art and dam a new waterway known as the South Canal was
tion, was outlined by the Secretary of the Interior, the South Canals. In its course, before i t reaches any name1 , that the Government could not deal with each of the distributing canals, is a steep drop which will be
were advised to form an organization that could repre-
not attended B so many engineerin
g 9 the south side canals had se arate heads, to which means Of dams-
QRANITE REEF DIVERSION DAM.
bu water in8 T t e water. The water rights were regarded as of It is a weir dam of concrete constructidn, 1,000 feet long
reclamation law which fl ad to be complied with, one of
parcel of the land. h o t h e r , a policy of the a f ministra-
indivi B ual farmer, for obvious reasons. The farmers the site of a power plant soon to be built.
approximately $500,000.
constructed as the main artery for serving water to all of
sent them all, settle their differences as to priorities, and Present a Plan which the Government with them as a and be assured Of the certainty Of
NEW CROSSCUT CANAL.
The perfection of the distributing system will involve of many needless small ditches through the the repayment of the cost of construction. This led to the formation of the Salt River water Users, the construction of larger laterals, the more general use
of meters and of cement and concrete in ditches and head- ings, and one large feature of the project, the construction
of a new crosscut canal. The wisdom of its construction lies mainly in the fact that the resent canal is not large Another reason is, &at by building a new
course, making racticable the erection a hydro- power pant that many hundred horsepower, the energy to be used in pum ing the under- pound flow at various points and
enoufh- a drop of nlany feet is assured at one olnt in its
Q P Or commerrial purposes, returning a notable revenue to the project.
PUMPINQ PLANTS.
Below the surface of the valley, a t depths varying from 10 to 200 feet, is a vast underground flow of water.
of the notable features of the project is the development of hydroelectric power at the Roosevelt Dam and it-s various drops on the canals, at a cost of little more than the plant installation, its transmission by wire to points where the under ound flow is nearest the surface, where
Two pum ing plants are now in o eration and ot ers
lants operated with power generated at t e
One
e
it will be a plierto pumps for raising the underground
%
flow, and t K us augmenting the irrigating water sup ly.
h
will soon t e installed, and there are t esides severcll lar e
booseveg Dam. rivate
MARCH, 191 1. MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW. 429
COST OF PROJECT. STORED WATER STJPPLY.
The allotment of funds for the Salt River roject has thus far been about $9,000,000. This inclu cp es the dis- bursements made for the purchase of the old canal systems, though had these not been bought a proxi-
ditches. To fully complete the project may cost well toward two millions more. For the 240,000 acres the project when completed should be able to water the expense of construction will, therefore, be about $46
per acre, to be paid in ten equal annual payments. This may seem to the eastern farmer, who is accustomed to a single crop per year from his acres, as an embarrassing rice to pay, in addition to the original cost of the land. guch readers should recall that, where they secure one crop a year, the land in this valley is working almost con- stantly, returning several harvests from some single
cro s, or two or three by the rotation of others. Again, it sPhould be remembered that with the storage reservoir there is assurance of crops every Yea:, which is more than can be said for the best nonirngatlon farmlng country in other sections.
mately the same amount would have peen spent P or new
On January 1, 1911, the depth of the storea water supply in the Roosevelt Dam was 61.75 feet, or an equiva- lent of 22,094 acre-feet; February 1, 1911, depth 109.55
feet, or 147,255 acre-feet; March 1, 1911, depth 126.30
feet, or 300,605 acre-feet; April 1, 1911, depth 166.50
feet, or 561,024 acre-feet. The warm rains of January 10, 1911, in addition to the rapidly meltin snow, yielded about 48 feet of storage
in the upper Salt River watershed during February
3-4, 1911, resulted in a run-off of about 17 feet. During the heavy precipitation of March 3, 4, and 5 the drain- a e from the upper Salt River added a depth of 25 feet. Ttere was an additional depth of about 10 feet during the latter part of March.
recipitation
Dam for the next year and a half to come there would be more than enough storage water in the dam to irrigate the entire Salt River Valley for that period.
water in the w oosevelt Dam. The heavy precipitation
It is estimated that should there be no
at all in the catchment basin draining into t E e Roosevelt
I
FIG. 2.-Flood Waters, Granite Reef Dam.
91622-11-8