Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1903-09-16
THE FAMOUS TOxAWAY DAM.
Some Interesting Statements as to the Con
Struction.

The Asheville Citizen publishes the
following interesting information con-
ceruing the much -talked-of Toxaway
dam n the mountains of North Caro-
lima:
So much has been said of the supposed
or probable danger of a break in the
dam at Lake Toxaway and the conse-
quent devastation of the valley below,
that the Citizen has had the entire mat
ter personally investigated with the re"
suits and conclusions herein stated.
1t is perhaps entirely true that should
such break occur serious damage
would be done down the Seneca river as
far as Portman Shoals, so miles away,
where the dam there would doubtless be
washed away and the great electric
plant, which furnishes power for cotton
mills and other enterprises as far away
as Anderson, South Carolina, put out of
business.
AS matter of abstract right, such
dams should be erected only under
government supervision and by direction
of skilled hydraulic engineers, bnt at
present there is no provision or law on
this question.
No more Johnstown disasters should
be either permissible or possible. That
the director of the Toxaway company,
however, fully realizes the necessity of
having this dam scientifically built is
shown both in the amount and character
of work done on it, and tho fact that
skilled engineer, Prof. Ketchum, assis-
tant to G. f Baker, the professor of en-
gneering of the Illinois University,
spent two months in personally superin-
tending it's erection. The actual work
Of construction was under tho imme-
diate supervision of Capt. II. S. Boswell,
the Toxaway companies very able engi-
neer.
That the dam was entirely safe beyond
the remotest possibility of danger is
shown by brief description Of it's
character and surroundings.
1t is 500 feet crest length, 2G0 feet wide
at base, 60 feet wide at water line, so
feet high and has II foot roadway along
the top, the whole costing about $34 900.
Near it is bridge over which the road
continues and under which is spillway
10 feet wide, with a solid rock bed,
whose level is ten feet below the top of
the dam. The water after passing from
the lake through the spillway has fall
of 300 feet within a distance of one
fourth Of imill.
1t is here the Toxaway river, later the
Keowce, and finally the Seneca.
In building the dam the ground was
stripped down to solid rock, which, the
engineer explains, was carefully exam
ined. Above these bitches were cut four
feet deep in the solid clay and carefully
puddled with good clay. A lay of stone
and cement was then built across the
solid rock from puddle ditch to puddle
ditch.
water line there is prism of clay puddle
varying in thickness from $50 feet at the
bottom to 10 feet at the top, the re-
mainder of the dam being thoroughly
packed down during construction.
In addition to this a stone wall 10 feet
the lower side of the dam, while the
whole upper face is rip-raped with large
stone from 20 feet to 7 feet above water
line. This rip praping increases gradu-
ally from 4 feet thick at top to 10 feet
thick at bottom
TO this is added n facing of plank two
inches thick fastened to heavy timber
and backed with puddled stone, extend
ing several feet above and below water
line.
Thus the danger from seepage, leakage
and wave action are provided against.
For each $4,000 pounds of watcr pressure
thrust million pounds resistance
weight is offered, which is three times
as favorable proportion as given in the
famous Quaker bridge dams.
AS to overflow: Its possibility may be
determined by q single simple calcula-
lake to rise on the dam before going
over. This would, of course, raise the
water ten feet in the spillway, while a
six foot rise would carry of in IL hours
time the average rain fall on the entire
watershed, in which the lake is located,
for whole year.
The heaviest rains Of the season have
not raised the water in the spillway moro
than four inches.
Thus it may bc seen that all cause for
alarm on account of this the last source
of danger from work of this character
is, like the others, entirely eliminated.