Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 244, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 October 1916 — LARGEST DAM IN THE WORLD [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

LARGEST DAM IN THE WORLD

Elephant Butte Will Reclaim 200,000 Acres in Rio Grande Valley. GREATEST PROJECT OF KIND ♦ Flood Waters of Rio Grande to Be Stored in Monster Lake—Force of Water May Be Used tor Furolahing Power. El Paso, Tex. —Elephant Butte dam, which will be formally dedicated by President Wilson October 14, Is the largest irrigation dam built under the direction qf the United States reclamation service and the largest mass of masonry in the world. It is 1,250 feet long, with a maximum width of 215 feet at the base, tapering to a width of 18 feet at the crest, which is 804.5 feet above bedrock. The crest is used as a roadway. The structure contains 610,000 cubic yards of stone and rubble concrete. The “lake” formed by the dam, which stores only the flood water of the Rio Grande, will be 45 miles Jong with an average width of six miles and an average depth of 66 feet. Storage Capacity. It will have 200 miles of shoreline and a storage capacity of 862,200,000,000 gallons, or enough to cover 2,642,292 acres of land to the depth of one foot —about twice the capacity of the lake behind the Roosevelt dam in Arizona, and four times the capacity of the storage reservoir behind the famous Irrigation dam at Assouan in Egypt. This would be enough water to cover the state of Delaware to the depth of two feet* or the state Of Connocticut to the depth of ten inches. The dam, wiiich will cost $10,000,000, is destined to reclaim nearly 200.000 acres of fertile land in the valley of the Rio Grande in New Mexico and Texas and 30,000 acres of land in old Mexico. Construction was begun in 1910 and completed so far as the laying of stone is concerned on March 1 of this year. The dressing of the structure and the clearing away of buildings and other impedimenta will ■be finished in time for the dedication by the president on October 14.

Destined to Furnish Power. There is a hope that the great force of the water flowing through the penstocks of the Elephant Butte dam may be converted into electrical energy which will be carried over transmission lines to El Paso and to the many mining camps within a radius of 200 operate countless plnnts of machinery. It is planned to build a power house at the base of the dam. The water, after turning turbines which will create 75,000 horse power of electrical energy will then pass into the irrigation ditches and do the work primarily intended. i__

Longitudinal View of Elephant Butte Dam.