Golden Valley

[Music] [Applause] Wow. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] often called the Golden State. Much real gold has been taken from the massive, menacing alpine north of California. The flanks of this fabulous country still bear the scars of unrestricted mining. But the real gold of California is not the yellow metal out of the earth. Infinitely more valuable is the clean fresh water that falls from the sky. For fresh water is the white gold of the great central valley. Nature conserves the rain water and perpetual snow on the titanic shoulders of an extinct volcano. Majestic Mount Shasta rising three miles above the [Music] land. [Applause] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. But the natural reservoirs can get out of control. Can be menacing, terrible. 6 9 10 in of rain may fall in 24 hours. More than a 100 inches a year. [Music] Yet far to the south, as little as 2 to 8 in may fall in the same year. To see what this means, we must look at the whole valley at once. 500 m long, 50 mi wide is the Great Central Valley. 2/3 of the rain falls in the north. During the winter, devastating floods sweep down the Sacramento basin and waste into the sea. In the summer, no rain falls. And to the south is a Sanwaqin basin with 2/3 of the farming land, incredibly fertile under irrigation. But the water resources are being exhausted. Thousands of acres have already been abandoned, are reverting to hot, sprawling desert. Even the groundwater is failing. Wells go dry. Everywhere are the abandoned farms. Mute symbols of the need for water. [Music] Helplessly, the scrawny arms of the fruit trees reach up for the water that does not fall. Millions of acres and a million people in this valley depend on a supply of fresh water. [Music] Nearer San Francisco, the salty tongue of the Pacific Ocean reaches further and further upstream with deadly persistence. [Music] It creeps up befalling wells, killing the crops, changing a rich valley into a hopeless desert. While the groundwater falls down, down, leaving the land cracked and baked under the sky, useless to man. Civilizations stand or fall on their ability to manage the land. Plenty of water falls and flows, but in the wrong places. Fresh water must be controlled and distributed. Here in the upper Sacramento, rich in California's white gold, men surveyed the land, mapped its rugged face, determined to find a way to preserve a fertile garden empire. [Music] A colossal dam will be built, rising higher than the Washington Monument, the highest overflow type of dam in the world. 10 miles from where the dam will be built are essential materials of sand and stone left by departing glaciers and smoothed and cleaned by the tireless Sacramento River water. [Music] 10 million tons nearly 11 million tons of this aggregate must somehow be transported from reading 10 miles across the wilderness to the site of the dam. How to transport these millions of tons by railroad along the river? The cost would be tremendous because there's a graveyard in the way. You'd have to build your railroad out over the water, but the mercy of violent spring floods and storms, or a graveyard is inviolent. Shorter route is directly across country, over the river, over the highway, over the railroad. A way had to be found to convey these tons up and over the steep high country. A way was found. There was precedent for such an enterprise. Resourceful Goodyear engineers had already used a conveyor belt to harness the mighty Colombia up near the Canadian border in Grand Puli. Any cross-country conveyor belt would have to be of great length to keep the number of transfers at a minimum. And here they pioneered a single unit almost a mile long, 9700 ft of continuous [Music] belt. And further south at Permanente, the same engineers had already demonstrated that they could solve the second major problem in cross-country conveyor belts. Here they designed and built a terrain following dipsydoodle. An extraordinary engineering achievement in this mountain roller coaster. Double counterweighted against high positive and high negative loads. Proving a belt's ability to climb or descend steep grades. [Music] Even with this doublebarreled precedent, heads were shaken and many said it couldn't couldn't be done. The problem seemed as high as the encircling [Music] mountains. But it was done right through the wilderness through the Manzanita and Chapperal brush. Starting from the source in Reading, the belt goes on steel pilings across the Sacramento River. [Music] over a state highway. [Music] over the main line of a railroad. On and on it goes across four county roads and five creeks. up over saddlebacks, climbing, climbing toward the pass. A servicing road was built for the entire length, making the line easy to maintain and creating an 80 ft fire lane through the brush to minimize fire hazards. 26 links, all interlocked, and each flight driven by a 200 horsepower motor. On the downgrades, the belts help generate power to operate the others. Five of the links changed the direction of 25,000 tons every 24 hours. More than 100,000 ft of belt was made of the finest rubber and fabric. Intricate new problems in design and stress analysis were solved. And presently, straight through the high country went something new in cross country transportation. A conveyor belt that reached across the miles and disappeared into the rugged distance. 10 million tons to be transported 10 miles [Music] [Music] away. [Music] Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, [Music] heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Something dramatic, practical, and new was moving before our eyes. A giant transportation job at a fraction of the old cost. These engineers have done more than build the longest conveyor belt in the world. They have given a thrilling demonstration of what men and machines and experience can do to work a modern transportation miracle. Helping to construct the second largest man-made barrier in the world. Bigger than Boulder Dam, higher by 7 ft than Grand Pulies, the water spilling over the top of this dam will be the greatest artificial waterfall on Earth. Three times the height of Niagara Falls. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. At the base of the finished dam will be a hydroelect electric plant to furnish power for national defense and for industrial use. Power for delivering the white gold to the agricultural lands far to the south through pumping stations and canals, rivers and irrigation ditches. Clean sparkling fresh water to drive back the salt of the sea. to turn back the desert, to spread the fluent blessing of fertility over a land nourished by the Sacramento and the Sanwaqines, the beautiful golden valley of California. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. [Music]