North of Highway 66

ARIZONA HIGHWAYS North of Highway 66

FEW years ago the Boulder project damsite was just another canyon up north somewhere in a country of many canyons; that vast and beautiful portion of Mohave County back of the Colorado River was something sometimes read about but never seen; the Kaibab National Forest and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon were natural wonders which had been beheld by only the fortunate few, and the Hopi villages and Navajo trading posts were reached occasionally though seldom by means of buckboard or postal stage. In those days the towns along U. S. Highway 66 from Kingman to Holbrook were Northern Arizona. Now, they are the southern boundary of that scenic wonderland. Newly constructed and improved roads and trails have made accessible to the people of Arizona and the adjoining states of California, Nevada and Utah countless places of beauty and grandeur and primitive life which hitherto have been penetrated only with expenditure of the greatest effort and at the price of many hardships.

Weeks and months formerly were required for journeys that may now be made in days. By comparison with total population only a small number of the residents of Southern Arizona are personally familiar with that vast territory which is nearly one-third the area of the state, lying beyond Highway 66.

Yet, at very reasonable cost, on week-ends or short vacations a veritable storehouse of nature's treasury may be opened up to every individual who owns an automobile.

A week-end of driving will take the Phoenix resident, for instance, to Boulder Dam and back; four days to Boulder Dam, through Zion National Park to the Kaibab Forest and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and return; a week, over the same route and into a portion of the Navajo and Hopi country, then over to the South Rim of the Canyon and home; two weeks will add to these points all of the ten Hopi villages, portions of the eastern, western and southern Navajo reservations, with, under favorable conditions, possibly a side-trip from Ganado to Canyon de Chelly. And on the way back are to be found the Painted Desert, the Petrified Forest, Walnut Canyon cliff dwellings, views of Sunset Mountain and San Francisco Peaks and any number of other points of interest.

Less Frequented Arizona Regions Made Accessible by Roads and Trails ARIZONA HIGHWAYS JULY, 1933

The trip may be easily varied to suit time and conditions and include those places most desired.

The Southern Arizonian en route to Boulder Dam reaches Highway 66 at Ashfork, then turns west through Selig man, Peach Springs and the Hualpai Indian reservation past the Truxton Canyon Indian school, one of the oldest in the West, to Kingman, heart of the Northwestern Arizona gold mining district and one of the thriving cities of the state. Here also is a large state game refuge on which is maintained a considerable herd of elk.

From Kingman, State Highway 69 turns north about 95 miles to Boulder Dam. The road traverses a wide rolling hill country until it nears Willow Beach, where it drops down to the Colorado River, then rises and winds through the mountains to the ferry across the Colorado at the foot of Fortification Hill, so named because it resembles in appearance a giant gray fortress perched atop a vari-colored base of rock. The trip from Kingman to Boulder City, while slow in places, can be made in approximately three hours.

It is eight miles over oiled highway from the ferry to Boulder City and seven miles farther to the damsite. Boulder City was laid out under government supervision for the purpose of handling materials and housing ofOfficials and men who are employed on the project. It now contains more than eight hundred buildings and houses more than five thousand persons. The government has erected a permanent administration building, a municipal building, modern school building, warehouse and one hundred homes for its employes. The project contractors have built nine large dormitories, administration buildings, store buildings, a large mess hall, a hospital and about seven hundred small homes which are rented to their employes. The town is clean and modern in every respect, including lights, water and pavements, and was laid out on an exact plan. Lawns are kept well cropped and green and trees and shrubbery have been planted. The town represents an investment of two million dollars by the contractors and government.

There are now employed in the building of Boulder Dam approximately two thousand persons working, in three shifts, twenty-four hours a day. The contractors are estimated to be a year and a half ahead of their program and at that rate of progress it is believed the dam will be completed within the next twenty-seven months.

It will rise 730 feet above foundation rock to raise the present water surface of the river 584 feet, making it by far the highest dam in the world, Owyhee in Oregon being second with a height of 405 feet. The width at the top will be 45 feet and carry a roadway, and width at the bottom will be 650 feet. Length of Boulder Dam along its crest will be 1,180 feet.

The dam, power plant and appurten-ant works will contain 4,400,000 cubic yards of concrete masonry, or sufficient to raise a solid concrete monument on one city block 1,300 feet in height. The project cost and interest will amount to $165,000,000.

The water of the Colorado River is being diverted during construction by a huge rock fill cofferdam through four tunnels in the solid rock, two on each side of the river and each 50 feet in diameter. The dam and tunnels were built large enough to care for any stage of flood which might come down the channel, the estimate being based on river records over a long period of years.

The lake formed by Boulder Dam will cover an area of 227 square miles, and will be 34 square miles larger than that of Lake Tahoe in California-Ne-vada. With the annual flow of the Colorado River being 15,000,000 acre feet, it is estimated the reservoir will require four years for filling after completion of the dam.The program of the contractors has

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Glimpses of Arizona North of Highway 66