Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1911-06-22
WORLDS SECOND
LARGEST Dam
Only That at Assuan, Egypt,
will Exceed KeOkuk'S,
TOTAL LENGTH OF $500 FEET

City Will Become Great Power Dis
tributine Center-Nine Mile Canal
That Cost 100000 Forty Years Ago
Will Be Drowned Out.
For more than fifty years that por-
ton Of the upper Mississippi river val
ley Immediately contiguous to the Des
Moines rapids, in Iowa, has dreamed
OF the DAY when the waters would be
harnesscd aud factories would line the
banks. But the years passed. and the
stones diG not assemble themselves to
form any dam, and trade went inland.
When the word went forth that after
fifty years Of hoping and dreaming Il
were many yet unconverted from doubt.
But when congress took favorable ac-
ton and granted the necessary fran
chises the doubters began to wax en-
thuSiaStic.
By the time President Roosevelt
signed the franchise for the immense
dam and power plant on Feb. y, 1905.
the eyes Of the entire country were Oh
Keokuk. When the necessary $2O,0OO,-
600 capital was secured and the first
Shovelful Of dirt was turned the world
woke up to the fact that the upper Mis-
sissippi valley held the key to he in
dustrial future.
On Jan. 3, 1910, definite announce
ment was made to h world that the
dan would be built. BY Feb. l several
score of men We're at work. Early in
December, 1910. 500 men started to
the entire winter they toiled to throw
a rampant across the river.
100000 Horsepower.
When the waters, guided by engi-
neering craft, pass through thirty tur-
bines they will generate 100000 horse
power, enough to light every private
and public lamp, run every street car
and turu every factory wheel in prac-
tically every Mississippi valley city
from the Saint on the north to the
Saint on the south. Two thousand
men went TO work with the breaking
up of the ice m the opening of navi-
cation.
The dam is to be the largest III the
world. with b single exception of the
Assuan %irrigating dam across the
Nile, in Egypt. The water power plant
will be the largest in the world with
out exception unless two or more If
the Niagara plants are combined for
the purpose of comparison.
When completed the dam will be
$500 feet in length, of REINFORCED
concrete, thirty-seven feet high and of
the same width, the foundations
buried for seven feet in the solid lime
stone bed of the rivers gorge.
Extending practically due east and
west across the river, the dam will
run its uninterrupted course for 400
feet, when 1t will veer to the south
and give way to the power plant on
the Iowa shore, where the turbulent
waters will be converted into CONNER
cial power.
Will Form a Lake.
Lie Idlh Will tESult III Lue 1OIuld-
ton of an immense lake from three to
fv miles wild and forty miles long
above Keokuk. overlooking the low
lands and entirely changing the topog-
raphy Of the country now Immediate
ly adjacent to the river. 1t will also
completely drown out the nine mile
canal built forty years = at a cost
of SS,OOO,Othj. 1t is one Of the require
ments of tht. federal franchise that
this government canal, with its three
locks, shall be s%upplanted by a new
n lock canal and Il new drydOck to
be given the necessary running power
free Of charge to the end Of time.
The dam completed, the rapids will
give way to a placid pool or lake, up
and down and across which the heav-
lest laden boats may travel in safety.
In the second place, Keokuk will be
come one Of the largest power dis
%rributing centers in the entire world.
Already contracts have beer signed
for the transmission of 10000 horse.
power to st. Louis. ITS miles south, to
u the street cars and light the
streets Of that city. Already negotia.
tons are under way to transmit the
power north and south, east and west
from st. Paul to Memphis and fron
Chicago to Omaha.