Page:Centennial History of Oregon 1811-1912, Volume 1.djvu/746

484 in horse power what he can see in the power of a mountain stream for a year; hut he cannot measure the life of the stream any more than he can determine the age of our planet. Man is wholly powerless to increase or decrease the fundamental unit of a water power. He may for a brief period store up in a reservoir the surplus energy of a stream, and thus increase its value ; but he cannot increase the original unit of value. For these considerations this greatest gift of nature made known to mankind by unravelling the secrets of electricity, should be absolutely controlled and administered by the State for the use of all its citizens on exactly the same terms and conditions. And thus it is seen that the mountains and forest reserves, holding and conserving the great blanket of snow deposited by winter storms, to be turned loose by the summer's heat and sent down the streams to turn innumerable turbine wheels generating electric power, are one of the State 's greatest sources of wealth and power. And by the .just and wise use of this power, furnished and administered under the control of State laws, every household and citizen of Oregon should soon have all the light, heat and power needed to make the house comfortable throughout the year, and do the work of plowing the fields, harvesting the grain and hauling to market the crops at one-fourth of the expense for such necessaries by present methods.

This vast water power is generated by the grand elevations of the Oregon mountains ; which are as follows :

Adams, Mt 12,424 feet Crater Lake : 6,177 feet Crescent Lake 5,025 feet Diamond Peak 8,807 feet Hood, Mt 11,225 feet Jeffei-son, Mt 10,350 feet McLoughlin, Mt 9,760 feet Odell Lake 4,990 feet Pauline Peak 7,387 feet Pilot Rock 6,104 feet Saddle Mountain 6,976 feet Scott Peak 8,938 feet Siskiyou Peak 7,662 feet Sterling Peak 7,377 feet Sugar Loaf 8,415 feet Thielsen, Mt 9,250 feet Three Sisters 10,250 feet Union Peak 7,698 feet Yainax Butte 7,277 feet Tamsay Peak 8,248 feet Eagle Cap 9,686 feet

The United States geological survey has completed a careful estimate of the available water power of Oregon from which is taken the following statistics: