The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1911-01-13
ONE NEARLY COMPLETED
Dam at Oakland Mills VIII Furnish
Power ia February, il is Thought
May Stimulate Inserur-
ban Building.

Chicago, has secured six valuable
tricaI power is to be generated. Five
of these are on the Skunk river, the
sixth is on the Iowa river, near Wa
pello and has been pronounced by the
engineers the largest and best water
power in the state. The company is
floating an issue of sg50, 900 s per
cent bonds. with which to carry on
the work II IS claimed that the dam
at Oakland Mills is So per cent COM
pleted and that power will be distrib-
uted from that point in February.
The circular says in. part:
The Iowa Power company was or
gained for the purpose Of acquiring
holding. developing and operating SIX
hydro-electric plants on the Skunk
and Iowa rivers in southeastern Iowa
The combined drainage era is over
$500 square miles The property on
the Skunk river consists OF five old
dams. called Oakland Mills. Webster.
Lowell. Gibson and Augusta All of
these were built under special char
tiers in perpetufty, granted by the
legislature. then territory OF Iowa be
tween the years 1895 and 1915 and all
were continuously used for producing
power for more than fifty years. The
Augusta dam is about nine miles west
Of Burlington and the Oakland Mills
dam is about four miles southwest of
Mt Pleasant the other plants being
between the two The main transmits
sion line for plants on the Skunk riv-
er viii run from Mt Pr asant. pass
ing through the towns OF New Lon
don. DanviIIe. Middleton and West
BurIin gtol, 3 distance OF thirty miles.
Branch lines will b. built eY-
tending from these plants on
the Skunk river. Another line.
extending from the Gibson dam
to Denmark and Fort Madison q dis
lance OF ten miles, viii be built. The
transmission line for marketing the
power from the Iowa river will extend
from New London through WapeIIo
and several small towns to Muscatine
distance of about forty miles. max
ing complete system Of all Of the
plants on the two rivers. so that pow
er can be delivered to ary part OF the
system from any enc OF these six hy-
dro-electric plants. None Of the
towns reached viii be more than
twenty-oae miles from one or the
other OF these power plants.
The power VIII be sold at whole
sale only. The company cannot ade.
quately supply the cities and towns
reached By the transmission nnes men
toned above The population of these
towns is more than 10000 people and
In three Of them there are electric
street ratlwaF lines. and in all of them
there are manufacturers using a large
amount Of power These cities and
towns have been selected for the pur-
pose that there is a good waiting mar
ket al 2 good price in each Of them.
the lines could also be extended to
Fairfield. Columbus Junction. wash
ington. Davenport, Rock Island and
Moline.
The engineer reports that he has
made 2 careful investigation, and
finds that the five plants on the Skunk
river will produce over 3 .500-horse
power, ana the one on the Iowa river
over 4,50o-horse power, total OF over
s,9o9-horse power or 1880. 500 kilo-
watt hours per year. exclusive o.
the 2 50lthorse power steam auxiliary
plants, which, If sold at only 21A cents
PER kilowatt hour, will produce an
annual gross income OF s422, 262. so.
The dam and power house at Oak
land Mills are now being built and
viii be completed and ready for ma
chinery about January 10. 1911, and
tho transmission line will be built to
Mt Pleasant, distance Of four miles,
ana the plant win be ready for opera
ton in February It will produce
about 706-horse power The Webster
plant viii be competed next