Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1906-09-11
The Keol1uk Water Power Will
Be the Greatest in the
World
is TO COST OVER s1o,ooo,ooo
Great Dam Almost Mile and Half Long
Will Be Built Into Mississippi River
Expected to Develop Maximum Of
10000 Horse PowerrTo Be Finished
in Two Years.
,ecial to Times-Republican.

Special to Times Republican.
Keokuk, Sept. 11.-At an expense of
ten millions of dollars, and in addi-
ton the destruction of present works
costing six millions of dollars, the
greatest dam in the world is to be
built here to develop the greatest cleo
trical power plant in the world.
incidentally, the navigation of the
Mississippi Is to be greatly improved
and the old desire for a deep water
channel from ST. Paul to ST. Louis is
about to be gratified for at least the
worst forty miles Of the river
The dam will be 101 feet less than
a mile and half long. 1t will be
thirty-eight feet from foot to crest,
with five feet of this height lying in a
channel cut in the bed rock bottom of
the Mississippi. The head of the water
will be thirty three feet and the pool
above the dam will extend to a point
a mile above Burlington, and cover a
million dollars worth OF real estate
now high and dry.
The dam built by the British govern
ment at Assuam on the Nile is little
larger but 1t was built almost across
country for irrigation purposes while
this one at Keokuk will be built across
the great Mississippi river at its most
powerful stretch, the foot of the Des
Moines rapids. where the current hith-
erto has been considered invncible.
Tho ran{dc "a ra NO vic ,,t.
except under exceptionally favorable
conditions. They are passed by steam
boats by means of canal twelve
miles long, built by the government at
cost of $60,0O0,000, and containing
three locks. All this will be drowned
by the new dam, but the one lock in
the dam and the deep water above it
will save the United States $4,000 a
year in operating expenses.
The dam and works will develop
10000 horse power as a minimum and
10000 horse power as maximum de-
pending on the stage of the river The
power now used near here is inconse-
quential in comparison. but the whole
project is based upon the fact that fac
tories will move to the power, which
will cost less than half what they are
paying for steam power thruout the
middle west
There will be little loss in transmit
ting power to all points up river. in
Guiding Burlington, and to all points
down river, including Quincy. st.
Louis is within the proved radius of
economical transmssion: and Chicago
can buy power generated by the dyna
mos here at a less price than 1t is now
costing manufacturers there. But it is
expected that the full capacity of the
power plant will be used near Its site
by factories moving to this neighbour
hood.
In all the modern instances, the pop
ulation has gone to five times the
horse power developed by turbines and
dynamos. This means 100000 more
people in Keokuk and it's environs, in
Guiding Hamilton, ILL.,, just across the
river. and Warsaw, ILL.,, five miles
away. Uniform experience may not
apply, however, to this biggest thing of
the kind in the world, but "a very large
increase in population is certainty.
The work is to be done under acts
of congress passed within the last four
years, all of them under suspension of
the rules by unanimous consent in both
houses The plans must be approved
by the secretary of war, who has gem
eral supervision of the construction
and operation. But the work will be
done by and at the expense of group
of capitalists, mostly Canadian and
Bostonese, who built the greatest in
stallation at Niagara and other water
power electrical plants in Mexico and
South America.
The power house will be 1919 feet
long and will contain twenty-slx OF