August 1, 2003

  • In the center of Lake View Cemetery, one will encounter an unusual sight: Lake View Dam. 


      


     


    At five hundred feet across and 60 feet above grade and 30 feet below grade, and with the ability to hold back 80 million gallons of water, the dam was the largest concrete filled dam east of the Rocky Mountains when it was built back in ’78.


     


    The dam actually sits down in a valley —*down there*—


                                                                    own the


                                                                      wn th


                                                                        n t


                                                                         *


     


                            and thus is so unobtrusive that many passersby don’t ever take notice.


     


    So, such a mighty dam must be holding back a mighty river, no?  No!  In fact, the dam regulates a largely gentle brook, Dugway Brook, that only becomes a little more feisty after a heavy downpour.


      


    So, why then, was the Herculean constraint of this regulating barrier ever erected?  I think it must have been as a reaction to the threat of a 100-year or even 500-year flood, something that no living being is likely to ever see.   Instead, what one is more likely to encounter is a gurgling waterfall up-dam…


     


     


     


    …and a placid lagoon or two down-dam.


     



     


    The route I circle (1.4 miles, time and time again) takes me down one side of the dam, across the lagoons, and up the dam’s other side and around by the waterfall, then back.  So, in a real sense, all of this time, I haven’t been ‘running around in the cemetery’ at all, but reconnoitering the waterworks and running around the dam. But, shhh!  That’s my secret.  I’d rather mostly be known as a ‘dust-kicking grave-stomper’ since that reputation seems to give me a critical edge while out  prowling around  booting ass on the weekends.

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