The Enterprise, White Salmon, WA., August 30, 1912, page 1

RUSH WORK AT DAM SITE
Over Six Hundred Men Rushing Things For The Big Fill And Erection Of Power House

     A village of tents and rangey sheds, cranes, cables, electric light poles, steam shovels, donkey engines, electric pumps, new highways, flume way, bridges, an army of men like busy ants high up on the west bank, mark the development that is on by the Northwestern Electric Co. at its dam site on the White Salmon river.
     A crew of 620 men are at work on the project. All along the route of their system operations are being rapidly pushed. At Camp 2, which is the main camp, a large force has cleared the west bank to solid bedrock for the placing of one end of the dam and are now "terracing" high up on the bank for the crushers and mixers.
     Two cables stretch across the river gorge for 1100 and 900 feet, being anchored on the west side to a gigantic rock at the top of the precipice. In the bed of the river for a short distance of about 125 feet another crew is clearing the bedrock, having to go down about 12 feet below the original river bed for firm foundation. The river has been diverted and goes rushing through its specially constructed channel which had to be built through four tunnels. They temporary 200 h.p. power house has been established, which generates light for the night shift of about 125 men and to run the pumps and other machinery, about 75 kilowatt an hour being used at present.
     In about a week the rock crusher, with a capacity of 500 cubic yards a day, the sand maker and the two concrete mixers will be in place on the cliff side and the fill begun. The quarry is at the top of the bank where the stone will be dropped to the crushers and mixers, the resulting concrete to be placed by gravity.
     Approaching the dam site is the big steam shovel, plowing out the bed for the 13-foot wooden pipe flume which is to carry the river to the power plant at Camp 3, located at the Bishop place about one mile and a half below the dam. At Camp 3 about 100 men are engaged preparing for the erection of the power house, building a highway and a high bridge across the river.
     When completed the Northwestern will have made one of the best wagon roads in the county and will be open to the use of teams from Trout Lake to Underwood. The road leads across the bridge, then up an 8 percent grade and connects with the Underwood road. The bridge is to be of a 20 ton capacity, having 70-foot span, 190 feet long altogether and is 110 feet above the river. Part of the cost will be born by Skamania county in return for opening it to general travel. One of the members of the construction company says that while there will be more grade the route is about a half mile shorter than the present Underwood road and it will be wider, consequently less liable to slides.

NOTES

     Twenty teams are used, chiefly for road work.
     The daily pay roll is estimated at about $2500.
     Besides the steam shovel, there are 7 donkey engines.
     Two bungalows are being erected at Camp 1 for the use of power house operators.
     A special, first emergency hospital has been established with Dr. Ballard in charge.
     The office force consists of twelve designers, three field parties, bookkeepers, about 20 in all.
     W.W. Swan of White Salmon is hauling gravel with his auto truck for the Company highway.
     Camp 2 at the dam site has 450 of the 620 men engaged, with a foreman for about every 40 men.
     A special police system has been established with headquarters. D. Cox, formerly a policeman in Omaha, is chief of police.
     The largest structure is the cement shed, 150 feet long, 32 feet wide, with an annex 90 feet long and 32 feet wide. Tons of cement have already been piled in the building.
     So far there have been two fatalities, one from drowning, the other from illness. Several have been injured, the last serious accident that of an Austrian who overcharged a stump with blasting powder, remained too close and had one leg a broken, a hip shattered and otherwise badly torn. He was rushed to the hospital at Hood River for treatment by the Company surgeon. A few mild cases of smallpox have about run their course.

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©  Jeffrey L. Elmer