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More from the trip
By Lynn | November 19, 2007
At the end of the Apache Trail, you are at the Roosevelt Dam and Roosevelt Lake. This was a pretty amazing dam. It was built from 1903 to 1911 and is the largest masonary dam in the world. It was built from stone cut from the surrounding mountains. Even the two buildings that were constructed were cut from that stone. Apache laborers and Italian masons were brought in to build the dam, and cut the stone.
The dam was raised 75′ later, (I think I read in the 80’s) and concrete was used. The concrete was poured in front of the original dam. The photo shows the backside where you can still see part of the original dam.
There is a serious of three dams along this portion of the Salt River. When the first one was buit (at Canyon Lake) it would take 3 days for the workers/materials to get there. That was when the Apache Trail was formed into more of a cut out road, than the original trail, which was literally the Apache’s trail. Pretty interesting. I am amazed at the history of this area. The more I learn, the more fasinated I am.
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