Glen Canyon Dam

A new and beautiful lake now rises in the sandstone land of northern Arizona and southern Utah. A new and easier highway routing for U.S. 89 lies across the desert, complete with the world's highest steel arch bridge. On a low mesa is a new city, Page, Arizona, with a present population of about 4,000. All of these have but one aspect in common the structure that brought them all into existence Glen Canyon Dam. Without Glen Canyon Dam, this section of the Colorado River along the Arizona-Utah border would still be remote and inhospitable, known only to a few Navajos and occasional groups of river boatmen. Without the dam, most of us would never have seen Glen Canyon, the river, or the superb and lofty scenery that lies along its length.

Glen Canyon Dam was not, of course, created in order to make a scenic lake, a town, or a new highway and bridge. These things are but bonuses. The real purpose of the dam is to fill a great need for water regulation, as well as to make possible a wide range of irrigation projects in the Upper Basin states. The sale of the huge block of electrical energy to be generated at the dam will repay the Federal Treasury for the expenses incurred in building the dam. It will also aid in paying off the costs of constructing the network of upstream irrigation projects. Glen Canyon Dam, Flaming Gorge Dam, Navajo Dam, the Curecanti Unit, and the irrigation units are all part of the over-all development called the Colorado River Storage Project, being built by the Bureau of Reclamation of the Department of the Interior.

TOTAL COST OF PROJECT WHEN FINISHED (INCLUDING BRIDGE AND TOWN OF PAGE): APPROXIMATELY $300,000,000 PHYSICAL DATA GLEN CANYON STORAGE UNIT

An American Triumph

Glen Canyon Dam now appears virtually complete. The last mass concrete was placed in September of 1963. Workmen are applying finishing touches to the elevator shafts and to the abutment approaches. Generators and turbines are being installed in the powerplant. To the casual visitor, the work is all but finished. He can only wonder about events that took place here in years past, or about the almost fantastic amount of knowledge, planning, and careful execution that were required to bring the dam into being.

More than any other man, L. F. "Lem" Wylie has called the shots at Glen Canyon Dam. As the Project Construction Engineer, he alone has had final responsibility for the quality of everything built at Glen Canyon. Of course, Lem has had a staff of inspectors and engineers working out of the Bureau of Reclamation office in Page, checking each detail of the contractor's work. But Wylie made the big decisions.

FOLLOWING PANEL

"GLEN CANYON DAM - POETRY IN STEEL AND CONCRETE" BY W. L. RUSHO. This photograph of Glen Canyon Dam was taken from a helicopter last September, a few days after the last bucket of concrete was poured in the dam. The dam rises 580 feet above the river bed. The maximum thickness of the dam at the foundation is 340 feet, at the crest 25 feet. 4x5 Speed Graphic camera; Ektachrome; f. 10 at 1/400th second; turbulent, stormy day.

Lem Wylie first saw Glen Canyon and the damsite in July, 1956, when he and a small group of specialists boated fifteen miles upstream from Lees Ferry. Some of these men had seen the damsite previously during the extensive preliminary investigation in the late 1940's, and they pointed out to Lem the various drill holes they had made in the steep cliffs. The site itself was good - a canyon 1,200 feet wide with 700-foot, almost vertical walls of unfaulted red sandstone. Because of these sheer walls, it was known that the dam to be placed here would require almost fifty per cent more concrete than Hoover Dam, which is in a V-shaped canyon, even though Hoover Dam would still be thicker at the base and slightly higher.

On October 15, 1956, a symbolic first blast was set off in the canyon on signal from the White House. A few minutes before the blast was to take place a jeep chanced to drive across and cut the telephone lines lying on the rocks. The result was that the telephone company had to use a flagman to tell the man at the detonator when to push the plunger. The President touched a telegraph key and the signal arrived at the canyon rim. The flagman waved, but the detonator operator either didn't see it or he thought the flagman was practicing. After a few frantic minutes the flagman finally got his message across and the blast was set off, all of which caused President Eisenhower to remark, "It certainly takes a long time for electricity to travel out to the West."

Lem's first problem was logistics. Thousands of tons of supplies and equipment had to be brought in during the next few years, to a site that, in 1956, was difficult to reach even by jeep. The Santa Fe Railroad considered bringing a spur line in, but finally decided against it. It was, therefore, up to the highway builders. A contract was set for a 25-mile, first-class highway leading to the nearest existing highway, U. S. 89, at Bitter Springs, which, in turn, led south to the nearest railhead at Flagstaff.

Shortly after this, the state of Utah and the U. S. Bureau of Public Roads authorized construction of a new highway from Kanab, across the southern border of Utah to the damsite. Thus the canyon was to have a good highway on each rim, but then the question was, how to get across the canyon? Fortunately, the problem had long been foreseen. In fact, the Utah highway probably would never have been built had not assurances been made that the gorge would be spanned.

Glen Canyon was itself a barrier of the greatest magnitude. Although only 1,200 feet across, it was almost a 200-mile drive from one rim to the other. A bridge would be necessary not only to link these two access roads, but also to materially reduce the cost of constructing the dam; a bridge would enable a dam contractor to tie his job together, rather than split it into two isolated units.

Those of us who watched the building of Glen Canyon Bridge will never forget the thrilling spectacle of men and steel against the sky, of hot rivets and safety nets, and of the cableway "cage" carrying men to and from their airy perches. Slowly the two segments of arch grew longer, reaching out over the deep chasm until at last they joined and were crowned with the American Flag. It was a sight to be remembered. A few months later, on a warm February day in 1959, the bridge was dedicated and opened to public travel. From that moment on the bridge has provided a superb viewing point from which to watch the construction of Glen Canyon Dam, just upstream. Guides are now stationed on the bridge for safety and to answer the questions of visitors, who have been coming in ever-increasing numbers 134,000 in 1959; 182,000 in 1960; 251,000 in 1961; 310,000 in 1962; and about 400,000 in 1963.

Outside of a myriad other problems, among them the complications of setting up the town of Page, Lem Wylie's main concern in 1956 was to actually start working on the dam. The first objective was to divert the river away from the damsite. This job alone took a year and a half. Two 41-foot wide tunnels one in each of the canyon walls were drilled through a half mile of sandstone and were lined with concrete. Then, out of the broken rock and sand taken from the tunnels and from other excavation, a cofferdam slowly began to take shape. The purpose of the cofferdam was, of course, to direct the river into the tunnels and to permit dewatering of the dam's foundation area.

In early February, 1959, when the river flows were normally low, officials of the prime contracting firm, Merritt-Chapman and Scott Corporation, declared that they were ready to close the cofferdam. Although there was no emergency, there was concern, for the cofferdam could not be closed in times of high river flow, and the erratic Colorado River had been known to flood even in February.

As power shovels and bulldozers narrowed the channel with boulder after boulder, the river countered with increasing velocity. It soon reached the point where boulders weighing many tons were rolled downstream by the swift water. Steel frames and concrete forms were then lowered into the gap and held by cables. Finally, on February 11th, after three days and nights of fighting, the cofferdam was closed; the river had been moved from its ancient bed and was flowing through the diversion tunnels. During the months ahead the cofferdam was raised to a height of 140 feet actually a good-sized earth fill dam in itself.

With phase one, diversion of the river, completed, heavy equipment then began moving in for phase two, excavation of the foundation. From early drilling reports, Lem knew just about how far down they would have to go to reach bedrock. At maximum depth it was 137 feet. The digging was slow and methodical, yet at the same time interesting. A short distance below the river bed the men began to uncover stratified gravel beds, and below that a narrow, steep-walled "inner gorge," where the river had flowed thousands of years ago. The walls of this inner gorge were weirdly eroded into "pots and flutes" that suggested to geologists much turbulence, even cataracts, in this stretch of the river, a condition far different from that of modern times.

Placement of the first bucket of concrete on June 17, 1960, was a momentous occasion attended by many dig-

nitaries. The Secretary of the Interior was there together with the Governors of Arizona, Utah, and Colorado. Lem Wylie demonstrated his versatility by acting as emcee for the program. After pulling the lanyard and releasing the first twenty-four tons of concrete, the Secretary of Interior looked down at the pile of concrete, then up at the vast chasm that had to be filled. Turning to Lem, the Secre-tary said jokingly, “I didn't help you very much, did I?” Justifiably, much has been written about the complex concrete placing operations that continued steadily from June, 1960, until September, 1963. There is no heavier job in the construction industry than the building of a concrete dam, and Glen Canyon Dam is one of America's biggest. The contractor's plant, which included equipment such as cableways, the mixing plant, the aggregate plant, and the refrigeration plant equipment that had to be removed when the dam was finished was valued at close to ten million dollars. Closed circuit television systems were but some of the many modern devices employed in the all-out effort to place concrete as quickly as possible. The Bureau of Reclamation designers had specified that the dam would be built in twenty-six blocks, which in the lower sections of the dam were split further into upstream and downstream blocks. Concrete was placed in alternate blocks, each placement being seven and one-half feet deep (a “lift,” in engineer's language). Over 1,000 miles of cooling tube was laid on the bottoms of the lifts in order to dissipate the chemical heat that builds up in mass concrete. Cold water was first circulated for about twelve days and then stopped. At intervals of sixty feet the blocks were again cooled for about two months in preparation for grouting. This long cooling tended to shrink the blocks and to enlarge the cracks between them. The cracks were then pumped full of grout (cement and water), under pressure, thus sealing the blocks to-gether. The cooling water was then permanently shut off and the pipes filled with grout.

As the dam rose, eight giant penstocks, fifteen-foot diameter pipes, were embedded in the concrete at an upward angle from the toe of the dam to the upstream face. In a few months, cold water from Lake Powell will fall through these penstocks and will drive turbines and generators to produce electrical energy.

In addition to the penstocks, there are also other openings within the dam, such as outlet tubes, inspection galleries, drainage galleries, circular stair wells, and elevator shafts.

Closure of the gates of the dam to begin storage of water was undoubtedly the most important milestone at Glen Canyon since the first bucket of concrete, yet it was accomplished in a simple, off-hand manner, without ceremony. On March 13, 1963, Lem Wylie led a small group of engineers and reporters into the depths of the dam's galleries. Their destination was the gate chamber over the left diversion tunnel. The entire flow of the Colorado River was then passing through this tunnel. Each of the individuals in this group must have had some thoughts about the significance of the moment. After all, in a few minutes the gates would be lowered, and Glen Canyon, a great work of nature that took millions of years to create, would be forever changed. Entering the small room called the gate chamber, Lem walked to the control board, pulled two levers, and the gate machinery started to whir. The gates began to drop. Lake Powell was born.

While a measured amount of water continued to be released, the bottom part of Lake Powell rose rapidly. On April 18th, just a little over a month after closure, the water broke across the top of the 140-foot high cofferdam and splashed against the concrete dam itself. Below the dam the river changed into a bubbling stream of cold, clear water.

Concrete continued to be placed during the summer of 1963, but the pace was necessarily slowed. As the dam rose to its narrowest crest, the working space in each block grew more cramped. In spite of this, Block No. 2 was "topped out" on the evening shift of March 30th the first part of the dam to reach ultimate height. Symbolically, the construction men placed a Christmas tree on this block and decorated it with gaily colored lights. It perched there for a week. The other blocks were topped out one after another. By the middle of September only one block remained to be finished. On the morning of September 13th, Lem Wylie dumped the last bucket of mass concrete into the dam. The major part of Lem's job was finished. Altogether it had taken over seven years of skilled planning and hard work to convert the designers' conception into reality. Much work, of course, remains to be done. At the dam there are items such as abutment approaches and elevator shafts to finish. And in the powerplant, even though one of the giant turbines and generators will begin to turn about June, 1964, the entire complement of eight generating units will not be completed until 1966. Large power transmission lines leading across the Navajo country and into the Upper and Lower Basins are still under construction. Erection is well under way on a steel-towered transmission line stretching from the dam to the Phoenix area. Through interconnection and wheeling contracts with the Department of the Interior, private power companies will transmit electricity from the Upper Basin "backbone" lines to R. E. A. cooperatives and municipalities in New Mexico, eastern Colorado, and Utah.

The economic value of Glen Canyon Dam, both from water regulation and from power, is beyond question. No doubt, too, it will benefit not only the West, but indirectly the whole Nation.

The dam itself will continue to receive its share of attention by the visiting public. The Bureau of Reclamation is now actively planning a program of interpretive tours through the dam and powerplant, to be patterned after the tours now conducted at Hoover and Grand Coulee Dams. Although the drama of heavy construction will be gone, the visitors will see Glen Canyon Dam for what it is a finely engineered structure created through the efforts of literally thousands of men. But this is not all, for the dam cannot be isolated from the lake it has created, or from the fascinating land it has opened to the world.

Lem Wylie probably expressed it best when he said, "Never before has a large dam been built in such colorful and magnificent desert scenery. There can be only one Glen Canyon Dam."

CHRONOLOGY OF CONSTRUCTION DEVELOPMENTS AT GLEN CANYON DAM

1946-1948Investigations of possible damsites in lower Glen Canyon and the selection of Mile 15.3. (15.3 miles above Lees Ferry) April 11, 1956 Colorado River Storage Project (including Glen Canyon Dam) authorized by Congress and passed into law.

October 15, 1956 The first blast at Glen Canyon. This was detonated by remote control by President Eisenhower. The blast was located over the upper portal of the right diversion tunnel.

April 11, 1957 Bid opening for the prime contract at Kanab, Utah. Merritt-Chapman and Scott Corporation of New York City was the low bidder and was awarded the contract.

May 7, 1958 The first steel was placed for Glen Canyon Bridge. The contractor was a combine of Kiewit-Judson Pacific Murphy.

August 6, 1958 The last steel beam placed in the arch of Glen Canyon Bridge.

November, 1958 Sufficient office space and residences completed at the new town of Page, Arizona, so that Bureau of Reclamation headquarters were transferred from Kanab, Utah, to Page.

February 11, 1959 The opening of the right diversion tunnel, the closure of the cofferdam, and diversion of the Colorado River around the construction area.

February 20, 1959 The dedication of Glen Canyon Bridge. Principal speakers were: Wilbur A. Dexheimer, the then Commissioner of Reclamation; Governor Clyde of Utah; and Governor Fannin of Arizona.

July 6, 1959-December 22, 1959 Labor strike at the dam. No work performed.

June 17, 1960 The first bucket of concrete placed by the then Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton.

May 8, 1961 The first millionth cubic yard of concrete placed.

November 17, 1961 The second millionth cubic yard of concrete placed.

May 15, 1962 The third millionth cubic yard of concrete placed.

November 19, 1962 The fourth millionth cubic yard of concrete placed.

January 21, 1963 The gates in the right diversion tunnel closed, transferring the flow of the river to the left diversion tunnel, 34 feet higher.

March 13, 1963 High pressure gates in the left diversion tunnel partially closed thus beginning the storage of water in Lake Powell.

March 30, 1963 The first block of the dam to reach ultimate height, 710 feet above bedrock, topped out.

April 18, 1963 The rising reservoir behind the dam breaks through the cofferdam thus putting Lake Powell against the concrete of Glen Canyon Dam.

September 13, 1963 Glen Canyon Dam topped out as L. F. Wylie, Project Construction Engineer, places last bucket of mass concrete.

FUTURE MILESTONES WILL INCLUDE: 1. First power put on the line expected July, 1964. 2. Dedication of the dam expected in 1964. 3. The final generator put on the line expected February, 1966.

PAGE, ARIZONA... (Continued from page 5)

carved formations seem to lean on the velvet of a sky ablaze with stars.

This was the location chosen for the filming of a motion picture last winter, "The Greatest Story Ever Told," a George Stevens Production. The script was taken from the book of the same name by Fulton Oursler and portrays the life of Christ.

Sets were built on Kane Creek Road north of Page. Jerusalem, Bethany, Nazareth and Bethlehem were the Holy Land Cities re-created here.

One of the stars, Charleton Heston, playing John the Baptist, called the region "not just like the Holy Land but more as the Holy Land should be."

Shooting of the picture began in October and continued until the following March here. Stars, directors and technicians lived in a camp set up at Wahweap and in Page motels. Many local extras were used, both Navajos and Whites.

For the six months of this operation Page enjoyed an exciting zoo. The animals used in the film were housed in corrals on Kane Creek Road. There were many camels, water buffalo, horses, sheep, goats and donkeys, even a lion and a bear. A camel born on location received a steady stream of admiring visitors.

During the past August, Broadman Films photographed two short Biblical pictures at the former Jerusalem and Bethany sites.

Kane Creek Road and all the location sites will soon be covered by Lake Powell.

With all its surrounding attractions Page itself is often bypassed. Many tourists still think of the town as a construction camp. Some have said that they filled their gas tanks in Flagstaff expecting to drive to Kanab, Utah, before having an opportunity to refuel.

A convenient spur road of U.S. 89 leads through Page, making a half circle back to the main highway. Without leaving this spur the traveler can fill up at any of five service stations. He has his choice of cafes, restaurants, drive-ins and taverns for refreshment. There are markets and a variety of shops, laundries and a bank.

Visitors are welcome at the public swimming pool in the summertime or at the air-conditioned bowling alley any season of the year. The traveler is invited to stay overnight at any of three motels on Spur 89 or to enjoy an evening of entertainment at the movie theater.

No tourist will fail to notice the twelve churches along this route. Each was built by its congregation with contributions and volunteer labor. During the strike andthe early days of Page many of the ministers worked at other jobs in order to keep their churches going.

Within a block of Spur 89 are the post office, a drive-in theater, a drug store and other shops.

On U. S. 89 between the spur entrance and exit is the Glen Canyon Country Club. Like the churches, it was built by the townspeople, and travelers are encouraged to stop and visit. The view from the nine-hole golf course is beautiful. To the northwest is the arch of Glen Canyon Bridge with the dam looming behind it. The town of Page is perched high to the east while the panorama of desert and cliffs stretches for miles in every direction.

With the first phase of construction at Glen Canyon Dam almost complete, many workmen have been terminated. Some who left Page to seek other employment have returned. Ask them why and they seem uncertain about answering. Earlier, they would have told the questioner that home was any of the fifty states in the union. The fact is that Page, Arizona, is home to them now.

These men and their wives might form the nucleus of a manpower pool for the small industries that Page is hoping to attract to this area. In addition to air service, three truck lines serve the community. A copper mine began operations nearby last year and there are possibilities of productive coal, oil and mineral deposits in the region.

At sometime in the future Page will become an incorporated city. At present it is administered by the Bureau of Reclamation from its offices here. Police protection is supplied by a U. S. Ranger force. A fire station is headed by a government employee and manned by local volunteers. The bureau's operation and maintenance department oversees the up-to-date water and sewage systems, both designed to take care of future population growth. The telephone system has recently been expanded to take care of increased numbers of long distance calls. Page has a local radio station and television by cable which brings four stations from Phoenix.

When Glen Canyon Dam goes into operation more than half the present Bureau of Reclamation staff will remain in Page to operate and maintain the project and to continue to administer the town as long as this service is required.

Since the time that the government built homes for its employees on the west side of town, a large number of attractive private dwellings has been constructed. There are residential lots available for sale to the public, many in choice locations with a view from the mesa. Lots average between 9,000 and 10,000 square feet in area. Several families have decided to retire in Page and have built homes here.

Retirement Communities, Inc., builders of Young town, is purchasing land and will build 800 to 1,000 homes in the southeast section of Page. The homes will be sold to retired person, age fifty or older.

Officials of the company termed this an ideal location with its favorable climate and established commercial and recreation facilities.

Tentative building plans call for 60x80 foot building lots with approximately 800 square feet of living space in the smaller homes and apartments.

Most of the land now occupied by the Page Trailer Court will be allocated for industrial use. A new pri vately-owned court opened recently on Aqua and Oak Streets. There are 148 spaces on fifteen acres of land with an additional four and one-half acres reserved for future expansion.

Trailer spaces range in size from 3,200 to 4,800 square feet with a granite base for trailer parking, a cement patio and walkway and blacktop driveway. The remaining area has been seeded and landscaped.

Of all the institutions in Page its school system has probably suffered most from the "growing pains" of the town and the Glen Canyon region. It is termed an accommodation school and is directed by the Coconino County Board of Supervisors in Flagstaff. For two years youngsters attended classes in three makeshift buildings while construction on a new school plant inched ahead, plagued alternately by labor and contractor troubles.

Just before its completion, in the spring of 1960, a fire destroyed a large section of the junior high building. Its doors were finally opened to the young students the following fall.

The next year the school was again picketed, not by labor this time but by determined mothers from a little town just across the state line in Utah. The children, whose fathers were employed at Glen Canyon Dam, were finally admitted to Page School through an agree ment negotiated between school boards in Arizona and Utah.

Merritt-Chapman & Scott, prime contractor at the dam, built and equipped a 25-bed hospital here at the start of construction. In September the hospital was turned over to the Sisters of St. Francis, a Catholic nurs ing and teaching order, which will continue its operation.

As Page counts its material blessings, the total is impressive. The framework of a town was supplied by the government and by the contractor, but the town began to live only as its inhabitants, independent busi nessmen and construction workers alike, breathed their own life into it.

During the first year of the community's existence most of the social and service organizations came into being. With no place to go beyond Page, children and adults alike launched enthusiastically into the project of finding "something to do" in special interest groups and in community improvement.

The Page Recreation Association was one of the first of these. It sponsored movies and dances at an out door theater called quite literally "The Cement Slab," and provided a lifeguard and transportation so that chil dren could swim in a construction reservoir on the west side. The Recreation Association has remained one of the most active civic organizations in sponsoring annual Fourth of July, Halloween and Christmas parties in addition to other events. Its latest and most ambitious project is the construction of the Townhouse, a badly needed recrea tion center.

Within a short time organizations included Boy and Girl Scouts, Parent-Teachers Association, Eastern Star, Masons, American Legion, Rotary, Lions and Chamber of Commerce. There were square dance groups, a gun, archery, and saddle club. Women's groups included Homemakers, Woman's Club, sororities, even a reducing club. One of the most notable of the groups is a unique undertaking, Page-Navajo Ceremonial Club, with Whites and Navajos working together to promote better under standing between the two races. The Manson Mesa Pool is the result of cooperative efforts between the Bureau of Reclamation, Merritt Chapman & Scott and the townspeople. It was built by donations of money and labor and is administered by a board of directors representing a cross section of Page residents.

During the past six years new arrivals to the com munity have added immensely to its culture and variety of interests and activities. With the continuing nurture of this pioneer spirit there is every reason to believe that Page will successfully complete the transition from con struction town to a tourist and recreation center, finally to a self governing and self respecting little city, no longer "Arizona's Newest Town," but one of Arizona's nicest in which to visit and to live.