Removal of the entire town of American Falls, Idaho, with its population of 2,000, two or three miles to a new site higher than its present location, is to be attempted within a few months by engineers working ona bago irrigation project.
Waters of the Snake River, on which American Falls is located, are to be dammed, according to present plans, and will be used to reclaim some 300,000 or more acres of arid land now given over to the sage brush.
Engineers say the project is one of the largest ever attempted. The big dam itself will have an abutment of one mile in length, will ye 60 feet high and will have a base sufficiently strong to stand an additional 30 feet should it ever be deemed necessary to add to its height.
The big reservoir to be filled by the waters backing up from the dam will cover 76 square miles and will have an impound of 3,000,000 square feet. Its waters will extend from American Falls to Blackfoot, a distance of about 20 miles. The reservoir will have a shore widest point it will be four miles across and in places 90 feet deep.
Besides moving the town of American Falls, it will be necessary to tear up the Oregon Short Line railroad and move it to higher
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