#ross dam

[thenurseexplorer-blog]

Ross Dam, North Cascades National Park, Washington

[cascadepass]

It was clear that [J. D.] Ross's heart, as well as his head, was in the Skagit Canyon. He had persuaded the designers of Diablo to lower the main floor of the powerhouse to enable visitors to see the big generators at work. An amateur naturalist, Ross imported exotic plants and flowers for Ladder Falls Garden behind the Gorge powerhouse at Newhalem. Because of his theory that plants would eventually adapt to a new environment, he installed hot-water pipes throughout the gardens to heat the soil for the semitropical plants he had purchased—pending their adjustment to a cool climate. He experimented with oranges and grapefruit and fully expected to develop a variety of pineapple that would thrive in the upper Skagit. Whenever he traveled, he picked up seeds or plants that might grow there. From Lincoln's tomb he got several small oak trees, from Mount Vernon two trees which he named George and Martha, and from Hyde Park two named Franklin and Eleanor. Ross also installed a small zoo at Diablo, where residents and tourists were entertained by monkeys, tame deer, peacocks, cockatoos, swans, and an infamous butting goat. But one by one, the birds vanished, victims of wild animals appreciative of gourmet specials in the wilderness.

The North Cascadians, JoAnn Roe

[cascadepass]

The [log and brush] clearing camp [on the slowly filling Ross Lake] was established on a huge log raft, 90 by 300 feet, and included a floating dry dock, comfortable bunkhouses, and an amazingly modern kitchen with such luxuries as an electric oven, dishwasher, and chrome coffee urns. The floating camp was anchored at first just above Ross Dam, a precarious and eerie home among the tops of the downed trees, surrounded by undulating debris. To protect the new dam from pressure, a boom was stretched across the lake to catch debris. The crew started to push the debris northward, cutting and burning as they went—a project that left Ross one of the cleanest lakes in the nation. There were freeloaders on the raft from time to time—bears. Whenever the camp was unattended, they tried to get into the stores. The more accustomed they became to seeing people, the bolder they got; and when a bear sneaked up and grabbed one man's lunch while he was working only an arm's length away, the worker quit and went back to his native New York. Cougars attached themselves to the camp, too, sitting like big kittycats around the fringes of the work sites and watching the men unnervingly. The mountain goats liked to have their young near the camps. Jack Sherin, foreman of the operation, said he counted as many as fifteen goats at a time on the shore of the lake. Even an occasional moose or timber wolf was spotted nearby.

The North Cascadians, JoAnn Roe

[sophig5ssv]