Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-07-30
THE KEOKUK DAM.
1.-The Biggest Water
Power Plant.
By Frederic ]. Haskin.

The father OF waters, the Incompatible
Mississippi, has been set to do the tasks
OF men. A dam has been thrown athwart
its mighty flood, and its power turned
into electricity is now running the street
cars and the industrial motors of st.
Louis, hundred miles away, while
other cities soon will be connected Also
The keokuk dam is the dominating
feature of the biggest water power plant
ever constructed In this or any other
country. II will take rank as an en-
gneerins feat but second to the Panama
canal, and in tho whole wide range of
the hydro-eiectric world will stand with
out peer.
Inc dam proper-the actual dam across
the river from Keokuk in Iowa to
Hamilton in Ilinois-is almost a mile in
length. but with the powerhouse and
seaWall and ice barrier 1t forms a solid
monolith of concrete two and half
miles long.
The dam is built at the Des Moines
rapids in the Mississippi. connecting
Iowa and Illinois, but within hailing dis
lance OF Missouri. These rapids from
the earliest days of steamboating have
formed an obstruction to navigation that
has given the government no little trou-
Die. Nearly Il century ago it was pro-
posed TO blast out deep channel through
the hard rock bottom of the rapids. and
work was actually begun, only to be
abandoned when the hopelessness Of the
task became apparent. Then canal,
narrow and with small locks, was built
ana continued in operation until this
dam was built. AS a part of the con-
tract with the government Congress
stipulated when the dam was authorized
That the company should construct and
maintain ship canal, with proper locks
and a dry dock. This has been done,
and the lock and dry dock will be operat-
ed with power developed at the dam.
working a saving to the government of
approximately $4,000 a year, not to speak
of the actual Improvement of the condi-
tionS OF navigation
When the work is all completed, in
Guiding the transmission lines that will
deliver the
Cost of Project power to cities
About $40, oOo, 900. :, .'" 10 . 'n m,,a.
the power plant will have cost approx
mately 100000 and will be capable Of
developing over 100000 horsepower. To
dam the Mississippi was an undertaking
requiring such great engineering skill
and SO much capital that twelve years
ago, when tho grant OF authority was
given by Congress- no one insisted upon
=
regulating rates charged for power: such
retention as is now insisted upon by
conservationists in all water power de-
velopments OF navigable streams. But
without going into the question Of
whether this unlimited grant was proper
or not, from the governments viewpoint,
1t is apparent that the government will
be greatly benefited by the direct aid to
much better locks than those that
formerly cost $40 GOO TO operate and
maintain.
The plant will deliver power not only
to the city of Keozuk, but to St. Louis
IN Missouri, Quincy in Illinois, Burling-
ton in Iowa, and many other cities in the
power zone, radius of $50 miles prac-
ically determining the limits. A con-
tract for t0o1O horsepower. annually has
already been made with a light and
more than 100 miles south Of the dam
Smaller towns also Will benefit, but the
policy OF the company is to sell power
at wholesale only, that is. 1t will make
contracts with one concern in each city
that viii in turn sell the power at retail.
Independently owned transmission lines
Will be built to the power plant, and the
Juice delivered to them in such guam
titles as may be desired
The idea of Harvesting the Mississippi
river Is not new, and many projects have
been based on the idea OF CONSTRUCTING q
dam at this very point But 1t is known
nov liidl a Qdil WOUlO nave DeGQ lmDOS-
sible before the dawn of the age of con-
crete, and that even had 1t been possible
it would not have been economically
practicable until men had learned how to
turn the energy of the water into cleo
tricity.
When Robert +. Lee was a lieutenant
of engineers in the odd army he made a
report to the War Department on the
great amount of water power in the Des
Moines rapids Of the Mississippi, and an
ticipated that in the future some use
would be made of it. But he was too
good an engineer to think that the time
had then come
Joseph Smith was more of a dreamer
and less of an engineer. and when he
foun d d the
Mormon Apostle Mormon Church
Dreamed of Dam. - as part o. o.
development at Nauvoo that these rapids
should be damned and made to run the
machinery of his colony. One man &C
tually did construct several wing dams
into the rapids. to operate a mill. and al
though his first dam was carried away by
ice, he built again and again. But all
that was in the first half of the nine
teenth century.
The twentieth century saw a greater
vision. The dreamer this time was an en-
Tineer VINO has proved by his works
right to stand high IN the rank of his pro-