Description
Pathfinder Dam is composed of granite blocks, quarried from the same stone that forms the river's canyon. With Buffalo Bill Dam, its contemporary, Pathfinder Dam was intended to irrigate semi-arid lands in Wyoming. Buffalo Bill Dam, however, is of concrete construction, owing to its location within 7 miles (11 km) from the railroad, while Pathfinder Dam is about 45 miles (72 km) from the nearest railroad. Freight took at least three days to cover the distance, and once took 76 days. Transportation of cement in barrels was not feasible by horse-drawn wagon, so the dam was built of quarried stone. The dam was faced with stones between 24 inches (61 cm) and 36 inches (91 cm) thick, laid in a 2-inch (5.1 cm) thick mortar bed. Between these facings was a core of irregularly-shaped granite blocks of up to ten tons in weight, bedded in mortar and quarry tailings. The diversion tunnel was adapted to become the dam's outlet works. Construction costs were $2.5 million in 1909. An auxiliary dike, 38 feet (12 m) high, extends to the south of the dam. It is an earthfill structure with a concrete corewall. A natural channel was enlarged and straightened to form an uncontrolled spillway on the north side of the dam.
The original diversion tunnel became the north outlet works, abandoned and sealed in 1958 with bulkheads. From 1958 the tunnel was modified to feed the power outlet works, an 18 feet (5.5 m) tunnel extending 3 miles (4.8 km) to the Fremont Canyon Powerplant at the upper end of Alcova Reservoir. The Fremont Canyon Powerplant has a capacity of 66.8 MW with two turbines, upgraded from 48 MW between 1986 and 1990. A low-flow outlet was completed at the dam in 1997 to allow water flow in the four river miles between the dam and the powerplant.
Read more about this topic: Pathfinder Dam
Famous quotes containing the word description:
“Why does philosophy use concepts and why does faith use symbols if both try to express the same ultimate? The answer, of course, is that the relation to the ultimate is not the same in each case. The philosophical relation is in principle a detached description of the basic structure in which the ultimate manifests itself. The relation of faith is in principle an involved expression of concern about the meaning of the ultimate for the faithful.”
—Paul Tillich (1886–1965)
“The great object in life is Sensation—to feel that we exist, even though in pain; it is this “craving void” which drives us to gaming, to battle, to travel, to intemperate but keenly felt pursuits of every description whose principal attraction is the agitation inseparable from their accomplishment.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“The type of fig leaf which each culture employs to cover its social taboos offers a twofold description of its morality. It reveals that certain unacknowledged behavior exists and it suggests the form that such behavior takes.”
—Freda Adler (b. 1934)