Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1913-07-17
THE BIG KEOKUK DAM
Greatest Electrical Engineering Project
in the World Located in Iowa and
in Now Furnishing Power

During the past three years many of
our people have been reading Of the
great dam being built across the Miss
issippi river at Keokuk. Mary of them
Khave seen pictures of the great plant,
but to fully understand and conceive
its immensely and tremendous pro-
portions, it must be seen with the eye.
An individual can scarcely dercribe it.
1t was the happy privilege of the
editor of the Republican to join a
party on tour of inspection of this
great dam last Friday afternoon. The
great works is owned by the Missis-
sippi River Power Co., and this cor
poration has in its employ an old &C
quaintance of the writer, DR.. q.
Walter Barr. IL was he who took the
party through the entire plant and Elk.
planned as best he could to IS editors
and their wives the aims and objects
of the company and TO tell them some
thing of the wonderful achievement
tAat had been brought about by one
person, Hugh l.. Cooper, who designed
the plant and who had brains enough
to invent machinery that would do the
work. Most all of the machinery in
the plant was made to his special
order.
The erection of the dam has made a
wonderful change in the country sur
rounding Keokuk. The old locks and
canal extending up the river several
miles, is now completely submerged
under fifteen feet of water. The rail
road tracks that for years ran along
the edge of the Mississippi river be-
tween Keokuk and Montrose have been
raised from ten to twenty feet and the
river Just above the dam has been
transformed into huge lake which
has been properly named Lake Cooper.
Thousands and thousands of feet of
cement walls have taken the place of
the old government riprapping, and
where three locks were formerly in use
on the Des Moines River rapids, one
enormous lock answers the purpose and
is larger than any lock built in the
Panama Canal.
IL has taken a force of $500 men
three years to bring this great project
to its present state and the weekly pay
roll during its erection was in the
neighborhood of $1,000. At the present
time some 500 men are employed but
when the plant is completed it will
only require about 80 men to operate
it,
The dam, power house, lock, sea
wall. and ice fender is all one concrete
monolith with total linear measure.
ment of ID. 1876 feet, or two and half
miles. The length of the dam with
abutments is 1919 feet, width 30 feet
at top and AZ feet at bottom, height 50
feet, composed of ll9 arched spans,
with piers six feet thick and span 30
feet inside. The power house is Ills
feet in length, 1T feet hight by 1872
feet in width.
The machinery installed in this
power house is the greatest invention
of the Goth century and is capable OF
producing 800, 900 horse power, or in
other words furnish enough power to
place electric lights 100 feet apart and
run them twice around the globe light
ing the entire distance.
This company is now furnishing
electric power for the city street rail
way and lighting plants at st. Louis
and Keokuk. Large steel towers have
been built along the river 10 carry the
current to ST. Louis. The company
owns q strip of land 100 feet wide the
entire distance and in the near future
an interurban line will connect the
two cities. What is more, the com.
pany proposes to furnish power to all
cities in the Mississippi river valley
In less than ten years power will be
furnished TO every city between Keo
kuk and Des Moines and who knows
but what it will extend as far west as
Omaha.
The editors were also given a boat
ride through the immense government
lock and ride out onto Lake Cooper