Wealth of the Worlds Waste Places and Oceania | Page 8

has been very active in promoting irrigation by building impounding dams and constructing canals and tunnels for the delivery of water. In connection with the various irrigation works the government has already established five hydro-electric plants which furnish water, motive power, and light as may be required. From the big Roosevelt Dam and the drops of the level in the canal connected therewith, twenty-six thousand horse-power will be developed incidental to the reclamation of two hundred thousand acres of land.
The miracle-working agent, water, has already reclaimed thirteen million acres of our domain, and these areas now produce two hundred and sixty million dollars annually; moreover, they furnish homes to more than three hundred thousand people. Prosperous rural communities with thousands of happy, rosy-cheeked children, blooming orchards, broad, fertile fields prolific beyond comparison, and flourishing cities replace wastes of sand and sage-brush.
The United States Government alone has spent already sixty millions of dollars under the Reclamation Act which went into effect in 1902, and the end is not yet, for as the vista of human achievements in this line broadens still greater works will be inaugurated and successfully consummated. In Arizona, California, Colorado, South Dakota, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming the United States Government already is working on or has completed twenty-six important irrigation projects.
The most wonderful work combining the highest engineering skill and daring is found in the western part of Colorado, where from Black Canyon, an almost inaccessible gorge three thousand feet deep, the whole Gunnison River has been diverted to the Uncompahgre Valley. To take the water out of the river it was necessary to bore a tunnel six miles long through a mountain from the canyon to the valley.
To determine the feasibility of diverting the course of the river, it was first necessary to make an exploration of the canyon. No one before had ever had the hardihood to even make the attempt, on account of the extreme danger of a journey between the narrow black walls of this gloomy abyss.
In 1853 Captain Gunnison discovered the river which bears his name. He traced its course to where it plunged into a chasm so deep and dangerous that he feared to follow it farther and named the gorge Black Canyon. Some twenty years later Professor Hayden of the United States Geological Survey, looking over the brink of the abyss, declared it inaccessible.
The State of Colorado, desiring to find some way of utilizing the waters of the Gunnison River for irrigating the arid land adjacent, in 1900 called for volunteers to explore the canyon. Five men responded.
Provided with boats, life-lines, and other accessories, the men started from Cimarron on their perilous trip. On the third day their provisions gave out, and later they were obliged to abandon their boats and nearly everything else except their blankets, which were protected in rubber bags. They knew it was impossible to retrace their steps and that their only salvation lay in going on. At night they rolled themselves up in their blankets and tried to encourage one another. They travelled fourteen miles between granite walls from two thousand to three thousand feet high; and for sixteen days they were almost without food. Then they came to a cleft in their prison walls which seemed to offer a means of escape.
At their feet the water plunged over a precipice down to an unknown depth. To go on meant almost instant death. They were dying of starvation. Should they go on? They had not accomplished their task. Life was sweet and there were loved ones dependent upon them for support.
So they decided to attempt escape while they had strength. Wearily they climbed the steep and rugged path that led them to freedom. Starting early in the morning, they reached the summit, two thousand five hundred feet above the raging torrent, at nine o'clock at night. They were ready to drop in their tracks, yet hope inspired them to renewed exertions. They struggled on fifteen miles more ere they staggered into a farm-house on the verge of collapse.
In the following year, 1901, the United States Government, becoming interested in diverting the waters of the Gunnison, sent out one of its engineers, Professor Fellows, to look into the practicability of the project. After looking over the field, the government engineer succeeded in enlisting in his service Mr. Torrence, who was a member of the first expedition. They planned to accomplish the feat which the former explorers failed to accomplish, namely, to go entirely through Black Canyon.
Profiting by the previous trip, they provided for themselves a complete equipment, consisting of a rubber raft, two long life-lines, rubber bags for food and clothing, a camera, hunting-knives, and belts. Until they reached the water-falls where the previous expedition had left the canyon, the "Fall of Sorrow,"