I have to admit to not remembering Page’s first water treatment plant being at the bottom of the canyon. When Gene LeGate gave me the first bunch of USBR photos for the blog and I saw these water treatment pics, I was dazed and confused because I could only remember the water treatment plant in town and those photos were completely different. After some research, I surmised that it sat downstream of the dam on the Page side of the canyon. Can’t fool me! What sealed it for me (sort of) was the first photo I’m sharing below that Tim McDaniels gave me that shows the road to it coming out of what must be one of the adits in the canyon wall that now serves as one of the ventilation tunnels for the tunnel that runs from the top of the canyon and to the lower spillway. If that’s incorrect, please let me know. I can take it. I’m still not 100% convinced because some of the background stuff in these pictures doesn’t look right. More on that as we move through them.

This first picture is a shot from above showing the layout of the area. This is the one Tim sent me that pretty much clinched the location. Notice the water line coming over the side of the canyon. That’s the line that brought water to the fledgling town of Page. It’s referenced in another picture below. Notice also the road disappearing into the canyon wall. The handwritten caption on the back reads, “J. Reinhold. 1st water treatment plant for Page.”

Here’s another top down view from a different, closer angle. In this shot, the facility is still under construction. The rectangle building was an electrical switchgear and maybe a pump room. The handwritten back caption reads, “Water pumps and sedimentary tank on river below Page.”

The photo below is a good angle for getting the perspective of the location and the size of the project, since there are people in it. I don’t have any other info on this one.

Here’s another close up of some of the work. This is the building that housed the electrical switchgear and and possibly some pump equipment. I tend to think it was all electrical switchgear in this building. If I was doing this, I would want to keep those two things separate. The back caption reads, “Water pumps and etc on river.”

Here’s another wide angle look at the site under construction. The white line is the water line I referenced in the top photo. You can see from the terrain why I questioned where this was initially, and still kind of do. There must have been considerably more excavation of that area than I was aware of. This almost looks like a different area, but not according to the comments written on the back of the picture which read, “Water line being put down in canyon to water works.”

These last couple are more close ups of the construction site. The caption on this one reads, “Pumps for water at river.”

This next one is captioned, “Water plant.” It’s a view from below the platform in the previous picture.

This last closeup reads, “Man on wall at water works I think.”

And finally, I leave you with one more aerial view. Thirsty? Got water?

-Mike