Duxbury High School - Partridge Yearbook (Duxbury, MA)

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In order to raise the great amount of water, needed for irrigation, 208 feet into the Grand Coulee, ten pumps of enormous size will be installed at the dam. One of these pumps alone could supply New York City with enough water to take care of all its domestic needs. The water. which these pumps will raise into the Grand Coulee, will in the next twenty-five to fifty years, give new life to 1,200,000 acres of sagebrush and mirage. On this restored land, homes for 40,000 families will be provided. and about as many in towns in the irrigated areas. This project will be self-liquidating by the payments from the settlers for water rights and from the purchasers of electric power. Now that the United States is at war, the power generated by the Grand Coulee Dam will become a valuable asset towards the final attain- mint of compete victory over the Axis nations. KENNETH ROBERT BUNTEN, JR. lill

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HONOR ESSAY Grand Coulee Dam The eighth wonder of the world, man's most massive masonry struc- ture on earth, three times larger than the largest Egyptian pyramid, lies within the border of the United States in the state of Washington. It is the Grand Coulee Dam which harnesses the Columbia River, the greatest potential source of useful energy of the rivers of the United States. More water flows from the mouth of the Columbia every year than flows from the mouth of the Mississippi. The Grand Coulee Dam was started in th-e winter of 1933-34 by the Consolidated Builders. Inc. This dam is being built under the authorization of the Columbia Basin Reclamation Project, which comes under the Bureau of Reclamation of the Department of the Interior. This bureau in the past 38 years has built 160 dams, which have regulated streams and conserved water now irri- gating over 3,000,000 acres of land. The Grand Coulee Dam derives its name from the Grand Coulee, the old river bed of the Columbia River, which will serve as a reservoir for the water that will bring new life to the parched lands of Central Washington. The irrigation of the rich land of central Washington with the water of the Columbia has been dreamed of since the days of the early settlers. Now, the enforced abandonment of eroded and sub-marginal land, the natural increase in population, and the desire for improvement in standards in living, make it necessary. Modern equipment and methods, electrical power, and federal financing make it possible. Before the actual work on the dam itself could be started, about twenty- two and a half billion tons of earth, gravel. and rock had to be removed. two towns, a bridge, a railroad, a high tension power lin-eg telegraph and telephone lines had to be built, and a whole hill had to be frozen with six miles of refrigerating pipes to ke-ep it from sliding into the river. After these prelminary preparations, the dam itself was begun. Eleven billion two hundred-fifty thousand cubic yards of concre-te and seventy- seven m.illion pounds of re-enforcing steel went into its construction besides tons of sheet steel pilings and millions of feet of lumb-er. Enough concrete was used to make two sixteen-foot highways from coast to coast. It measures five hundred feet in width at its base and thirty feet in width at its crest. It is 3,000 feet in length at its base and 4,300 feet long at its crest. There are two immense power-houses at each end of the dam. Each one is larger than the Capitol of th-e Unit-ed States. In these there will be placed eighteen turbines and eighteen generators capable of generating' 1,950,000 kilowatts of electricity, eno-ugh electricity to make t-in solid aluminum Washington Monuments in one year. E201

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I-IONGR ESSAY The American Indian Before the coming of the paleface, the Indians of America had made little progress in a material way and were truly children of nature. No one knows where the Indian came from, but it is believed by many scientists that they came to this continent by crossing from Asia at Bering Strait or farther south by a passage which has now disapppeared. The straight, black hair, the broad face with high cheekbones, the aquiline nose, the slightly Chinese slant of the eye, and the scant beard are distinguishing features of the Indian. The basis of virtue with the Indian was self control. Each was re- quired to conceal his emotions and to stand torture without flinching. Theft and crime were so unknown to the Indians that there were no rules for punishment, and an Indian always kept a promise no matter what happ-ened. It is readily thought that th-e chieftain of the tribe controlled every- one's rights and ways, but that is not so. Each man governed himself with respect for the rights of his neighbors, and nothing was l-eft for the chief to do but to carry out the will of the tribe. Ceremonies featured by the smoking of the calumet, a stone pipe, marked the beginning and the end of a war. During wartime the warriors of battle daubed bright paint on their bodies and donned war bonnets of eagle feathers. When an Indian died, he was buried in a sitting position with his choice belongings beside him, for after leaving his prcscnt honie, the Indian believed his soul would move to a different and more prosperous on-e. Many peop.e think of the Indian as being merely a hunter, a fisher, and last of all a fighter. But the Indian had many sgorts and games which he enjoyed. One of these was gambling, which was considered exce-i.nt sport. Another is the game of LaCrosse which has been taken over by the whites. The Indian has many beautiful and weird legends. That of Hiawatha has a permanent place in literature. Many of the Indian traditions re- semble the o-d Bible stories, for the most part thos-e of Joseph. Other tal-es are of the anima.s building the world, or bringing iire to men or are tragic romances. The Indian had great skill in weaving textiles and baskets and in making stone weapons. But with the coming of the metal utensils and machine-woven c.oth, the skil-ed arts to which the children of nature were adapted, vanished. The breakdown of the native culture was inevitable once the white man had entrenched himself in the New World. Whole tribes were swept away and others reduced greatly by new diseases introduced into the country by the settlers. The introduction of alco-hol did its part to break down the pride and spirit of the Indian. i221