Soda Dam — An Odd Freak of Nature

1901

An Arizona Dam Which is a Massive Wall of Pure Soda

Probably few people ever heard of a soda dam, but such a freak of nature really exists in an unfrequented part of the great West. A. O. Wright, of the Indian service, who travels extensively through that section of the country west of the Missouri river, in speaking of strange things he has encountered in his tours, alluded to the soda dam. Asked what he meant by a soda dam, he said:

"In Box canyon, just above the hot springs of the Jemez river, Arizona, is a dam extending from one wall of the gorge to the other. This dam is nothing more nor less than a massive wall of pure soda, rising to a height of 100 feet, and probably from 600 feet from end to end. Nature's forces, of course, started their work of construction away back in the dim and distant past, when deposits of soda contained in the water thrown off by the springs were made at the base of what has since developed into one of the natural wonders of the West. Those deposits must have been made with remarkable rapidity.

"Just ten years ago the Jemez river rose to an unprecedented height, and under the abnormal pressure of the torrent a lower section of the dam gave away, leaving a breach in the wall of soda about 20 feet high. When the water subsided the lake formed by the dam was, of course, destroyed, leaving the upper 80 feet of the dam high and dry.

"I passed through that section of Arizona last summer, and purposely visited the soda dam. I was most astonished to see that the 20-foot breach had been nearly filled in. The soda from the springs had made fresh deposits, and gradually patched up the hole made in 1890. At the present rate the breach will be entirely closed in another year, and the like will assume its former proportions.

"Previous to the break in the dam the lake above was fully 600 feet wide, and extended up the stream for at least three-quarters of a mile. Scientists who have examined the dam are of the opinion that it will never attain a height much above 100 feet, for the deposits in the water seem to sink in that great depth before the brink is reached. As they fall, however, they will tend to strengthen the base of the dam, and will gradually decrease the depth of the lake at its lower end." — Washington Star.

Note: Soda Dam, Santa Fe National Forest.