The Taney County republican. (Forsyth, Mo.) 1895-1992, 1909-02-18
How Dams Improve Navigation Of Mountain
Streams-O Other Benefits to Accrue.


since railroad communication was estab-
Gshed at Branson no raft has passed
down White river by Wheeler's bend,
and the freight table of the White River
railway shows the freight rates between
Cotter and Kansas City one-third larger
than they are between Branson and
Kansas City, and all freight, lumber,
ties and logs above Wheeler's bend
could be taken much more easily on
this slack weter navigation from above
the bend and placed on cars at Branson
than they could be taken down the riv-
er to Cotter and placed on cars there.
There would therefore need be no lock
for steamboats, or sluice for timber rats
at this point. Skiffs could be taken
care of by sluice, or by an electrical
arrangement to take them over, the
ridge and place them in the outlet of
the passageway below the power house
near where the, road passes that goes to
Forsyth, whence the outlet water from
the power dam would pass them down
the river to Cotter.
D. The reservoir from the Wheeler
bend to Branson would be 16 miles
long and from a fourth to third of a
mile wide. which would give from four
to five sections, or from $500 to 5000
acres, of bondage This would arrest
the flood waters from above until the
reservoir would be full, and during
low water stage the water could be let
out to increase the fowage below, and
during the low water stage, during "A
hours of the day, nearly all the incom-
ing water could be shut in, and that
would double the fowage below during
the next day, in addition to what would
be drawn from the flood reserve in the
reservoir; thus such reservoir would aid
skiffs in getting below and aid the tax
ing of ties and cedar posts down to Cot
ter, and furnish the same benefits from
Cotter to Batesville. It would also ben
eft boat service over the three Bates
vile dams the same as it would benefit
boat service in the Wheeler bend, and
from there on it would help general
navigation clear to the Gulf. To a
small extent it would reduce floods in
the White river valley in Arkansas,
where now there are61O,OOO acres of
land flooded by Ugh water in the White
river basin, as shown by Senate report,
No. 1888, 55th Congress, 3rd session,
page D, in which it says the floods in
the valley cover o56 square miles. The
starting of the reservoir at Wheeler's S
bend would cause the building of other
reservoirs above there on different trib-
utaries and on tributaries below, which
would reduce floods below, and improve
navigation there.
8. These five reservoirs in Minnesota
are built on different tributaries of the
Mississippi. Logs go through these
reservoirs down their tributaries to the
Mississippi, and so reach Minneapolis
and other points.
It will be noticed that sluice IL
feet wide carried through in Is days
IS, 100000 B. M, which would be
equivalent to 1888 car loads of sawed
lumber, each car to be of 10000 capac-
ity, which would be approximately 25
times as much as all the ties and cedar
posts, or other material, doated into
Cotter since railroad communication
was opened at Branson. If this amount
of logs had been in a raft, or series oi
RATS. il would have taken many months
to pass them through one of the Bates
vile locks, and a great deal of expense
entailed in cutting the raft or RATS to
pieces and holding the parts together
/ in boom until they could be re-rafted;
so there will never be any occasion fol
a lock at the Wheeler bend for the feat
ing of logs in case a power plant shall
be established there. It is now SOC
miles by river above the Batesville dam