[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 90 (Tuesday, June 18, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S6413]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 THE THEODORE ROOSEVELT DAM IN HISTORY

   Mr. KYL. Mr. President, on March 18, 1911, Teddy Roosevelt 
stood at the conjunction of the Salt River and Tonto Creek in the Salt 
River Valley, and pushed a button to release water from the dam that 
had been named after him. The harnessing of the Salt River 85 years ago 
created a lake that is 30 miles long, 4 miles wide, and a tribute to 
the dogged determination of turn-of-the-century engineers, political 
leaders, and residents of the local Indian and Anglo communities. At 
the rededication of the dam this spring -- the ceremony marked the 
completion of a 9-year makeover by the Salt River project--I and some 
2,000 other Arizonans gathered to celebrate this historic 
accomplishment.
  From this distance in time, it is easy to forget that harnessing 
water to make the desert bloom put American political and technological 
ingenuity to a severe test. In the late 1800's, east-coast investors 
had first planned to build a masonry dam to tame the Salt River, but 
they proved unable to raise the $3 million necessary for this vast 
project. Only the Federal Government could do it. Just as in our own 
day, many different interests had to be reconciled before this mammoth 
effort could begin. As the historian Thomas Sheridan writes:

       Debate raged between farmers and speculators, between small 
     farmers and large landowners like Dwight Heard and Alexander 
     Chandler, between those who favored federal involvement and 
     those who wanted Maricopa County or Arizona Territory to take 
     control.

  The man who made it all come together was Benjamin Fowler of Chicago, 
who had moved west for his health. Fowler was a private citizen who was 
able, Sheridan says, to ``talk his fellow farmers into hammering out a 
plan the Government would approve.'' In 1903, the Salt River Valley 
Water Users' Association--today's Salt River project--was incorporated, 
and a complex yet workable public-private partnership was born. Two 
years later, ground was broken on the site, and the water control 
project commenced.
  Instead of calling for the huge masonry structure that was originally 
envisioned, the U.S. Geological Survey plan made use of a natural rock 
basin to create the dam. Conditions at the Tonto Basin were gruelling: 
In the parching heat, laborers lowered themselves off steep cliffs on 
lifelines in order to hack roads out of solid rock. The setbacks were 
many. Temporary dams and flues were swept away by the floods of 1905. 
The transmission of electrical current to run heavy equipment caused 
one fatal accident; three others were drowned during construction of 
concrete bridges over the Grand Canal. But gradually, block by heavy 
block, the stone and concrete structure rose 284 feet from the river 
bed. Hundreds of geologists, stonecutters, zanjeros--gate operators,--
laborers, and engineers had reclaimed the Great American Desert, 
turning Arizona's unnavigable waterways into irrigation for fields of 
grain, vegetables, cotton, and livestock.
  Today, the Salt River project continues the partnership of Arizona 
citizens and the Federal Government by operating the dam on behalf of 
the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The SRP's work has enabled the 
Roosevelt Dam, which, at 85, is 19 years older than Nevada's Hoover 
Dam, to keep up with the times. The average family of four uses 325,851 
gallons of water in 1 year. The recently completed renovation has 
increased the dam's height and capacity, adding storage for flood 
control as well as enabling the facility to serve another 1.2 million 
in population. As the valley's population grows, and as more and more 
recreational users flock to the camp grounds of Roosevelt Lake, the 
Roosevelt Dam bears out the vision of those who planned, risked, and 
sweated to bring it into existence.

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