The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1910-01-30
Beaumont Enterprise Devotes Col
umn to the keokuk Water Power
Dam Giving Details of the
Great Project.
WRITTEN BY R. B. B. WOOD
Former keokuk Journalist Sees That
the Texans are Informed of the
Gigantic Feat of Enai-
neerng.

a recent issue of the Enterprise Of
Beaumont, Texas, contained the fol
lowing notice of the Ktokuk watel
power project, written by R. B. b
Wood of Silsbee, Texas, who although
far from home. does not forget Keo-
kuk:
Keokuk. Iowa. is an old and pretty
little city on the Mississippi river at
the fcNt OF the Des Moines rapids and
is wild with enthusiasm and the boom
spirit Just now over the success of a
gigantic enterprise of national s-1por-
lance, which was. announced on Gem
eral Jackson's day. January s, as hay.
. ing the financial backing of a syndi-
cate of capitalists in the east and work
1 would speedily begin 1t has hung.
/ fire long time and kept the people
waiting with eager anxiety Being on
the big Mississippi river. an important
nayigable stream, the giant waterway
4 between the far north and the extreme
south, it was of course necessary to
have the consent of the United States
congress and the approval of the pres;-
dent to dam the Mississippi, giving
4 boats as easy passage as they have
now. government canal being used
at present, beginning. at Keokuk and
extending about eight miles north.
The purpose of the dam is to bride
the rapids and utilize the power
wasted to generate power for manu-
1 70 of,1rincr and a4har ,,oae T,o, L,1e !,
century this question has been in the
minds of the people hereabouts, long
before electric power was thought Of,
but nothing real tangible was done
until July 6. 1899, when few citizens
of Keokuk, Iowa, and Hamilton, H. a
little town on the opposite side Of the
river, got together and organized the
Il Keokuk and Hamilton Water Power
company which was incorporated the
" following year. Congress passed an
act in 1901 granting the right to build
a wing dam. The plan was afterwards
changed necessitating another consent
I from congress which was secured in
the winter of 1905 President Roosevelt
signing it February of that year.
The people then shouted not antici-
pating drag Of five years amid
doubts and fears.
& Soon afterwards Hugh L. Cooper, a
prominent New York civil engineer,
took the matter in hand and October
26, 1908, the franchise was turned over
to him. The surveys had all been
made and all that was needed was the
necessary cash, which amounted to
/! millions, to be more exact, about s12,
600. 600. Not many days elapsed after
the 9Th of January when the announce
ment was made that the money had
been secured, until the preliminary
work ON the great power plant was be
gun. About the first of May from ] ,00f
10 1000 men will be employed in the
construction OF the enterprise. 1t vii
require about three years TO complete
the work and Keokuk thinks it vii
lift her 5000 population into cit,
of huge dimensions Sales of real es
tate and options are going on at ;
lively rate. It viii be wonderful worl
d scarcely equalled by any similar en-
terprise in the world.
Z The dam is to be 5000 feet long. re
! quiring many thousands of tons Of va
rious kinds Of material to construct II
The dam will be thirtyseven feet high