The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1911-07-07
THE kEokuk DAM.
New London Men Report Their I'm
pressions Of the Great IN
dertakinq.

Mt. Pleasant Free Press. F. j.
Matthews OF Canaan told US of trip
ne and about thirty-fiye or forty New
London men made to Keokuk last
week. They went on Wednesday and
there were eight automobiles to carry
the sightseers.
Inc roads were so dusty after
leaving Lowell that the cars had to
take big distances, but the party had
agreed to meet at the Keokuk Hotel
and there at one o'clock they were
given a guide who showed them every
thing of interest.
Mayor A. d. Hayes of New London
mad arranged the trip and it was un-
der his direction as guide and coun-
cillor that the journey was made
They were careful to take three doc
tors and an undertaken along SO as to
be ready for all emergencies. They
had Drs. Richie, Andrews and DR..
Holland, who has just graduated from
Chicago school of dentisty and the
undertaken was Countryman of New
London
Matthews has worked as carpen-
ter and is handy with machinery SO
that he saw everything. we believe,
If we could just tell it as interesting
~ as he related it. He has the gift
OF telling things much as his uncle,
the late Frank Matthews, had it.
Frank Matthews was one of the most
interesting men we have known.
The work at the dam, of course, is
still preliminary to the big work
which means the power house and the
dam. So far all the time and money
has been spent in preparing for the
final work, Golfer dams have been built
and at present there are eighteen
acres of river bed SO dry that the
party walked all over the river bed
without getting their shoes muddy.
Matthews wore pair of oxfords and
he found the bed of the river solid
mass of stone. The Golfer dam is
sixteen to eighteen feet high and so
you may know what it has cost to
build that alone Foundations for the
heavy drills and concrete mixers have
also been built of cement. This work
is mostly cement and looks as If 1t
were permanent work, but after the
power house is built this machinery
will be removed and the cement
| foundations which represent thous-
ands of dollars will be flooded, for
then the river will be turned back in
and those foundations will be under
water twenty feet.
The Golfer dam has been enlarged
and while the Henry county party was
there the workmen were engaged in
pumping the water out of the addition
They expected to have 1t dry in three
days, after which there will be thirty
three acres Of the Mississippi river
exposed for the frs. time in thous-
ands of years.
Where the mill race is being built
the stone is being cut out to depth
of twenty-four feet. The turbines
will be almost that far below the bed
| of the river. That is all solid rock,
and powerful drills and cranes are at
work removing the rock. Those cranes
are SO large that Matthews saw them
carrying stones as big as fiat car.
All the work Is SO immense that 1t is
1 being done with machinery.
Away up on the high bluff, possibly
1 a hundred feet above the proposed
/ power plant, q big wooden tank has
been erected. Into this river water
is being pumped This water Is to be
used to mix the concrete.
And while we think OF 1t the pump
! used to pump the water out of the
Golfer dam throws stream of water
two feet In diameter. In that way an
enormous volume OF water can be
thrown out in short time The
Golfer dam is not above high water
mark and II the river decides to go
on rampage the entire thirty-three
acres may be flooded several times
before the power house can be com
pleted
Another thing Matthews was won.
| dering about was as to the anchorage
OF the dam. He wondered how they
could build dam that would hold
back the water which will run clear To
4 Burlington and even above that city
He says that a trench fifteen feet deer
4 and fory-five feet wide will be cui