Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1914-05-30
JOY RIDERS LIKE
MAMMOTH LOCK
MIDDLE WEsTERNERs HAVE NEW
FAD OF PASSING COLOSSAL
kEOkUk LOCK.
(By G. Walter BARR

Keokuk, May 2S.-Joy riding in
steamboats, through the colossal gov
eminent lock here has become the
popular amusement and recreation of
the middle west. The lockmaster is
kept busy locking through boats of all
kinds from the largest steamers on the
Mississippi to little gasoline launches
from village port up creek some
where in one of the adjoining states.
The sport becomes more and more
attractive. Every month since the
new lock was put into commission
sees larger number of people pass
ing through it in all kinds Of craft.
All excursion boats on the upper
Mississippi keep standing in all their
advertising descriptions of the joy to
be found in going through the Keokuk
lock- All these steamboat lines name
it as one of the features of trip
Packets which do not run above Keo-
kuk start down river by detour up
through the lock and turn back into
their course on Lake Cooper to pass
down through the lock- Passengers
and tourists arriving here by rail-
roads board steamboat to ride up
through the lock and down again.
Relatives more or less distant are
writing Keokuk people of visits to be
made this summer with the hope of
getting ride through the lock- Men
of other river cities even miss Sun
day afternoon baseball games to join
excursion parties through the Keokuk
lock.
novelty and the spectacular. The
Y H. x,,i =
those at Panama and a much higher
lift than any one lock on the isthmus.
A boat enters from below through
gates longer, thicker and stronger than
those at Gatun. Suddenly three score
geysers start to gushing into the bot
tom of the lock all around the boat.
In twelve minutes, the boat has been
raised about forty feet as the lock
chamber filled with over 100000
gallons of water. The upper gate. of
original design, sinks down to the
bottom of the river, and the boat
passes over 1t into the lake above the
big Keokuk dam. Being lifted forty
feet in big steamboat, or dropped
the same distance, even without a
tremor of the boat, gives something of
a thrill.
The lock became the property of the
United States, with power for its per.
petual operation, at once upon its
completion by the company building
the water power development here.
Because the floating upper gate must
be operated by compressed air, all
parts of the lock are worked by air
engines. One man in concrete pagoda
stands at big table full Of valve
handles and puts the lock through it's
PAGES. The service Is free to all boats
and is maintained day and night dur
ing, the navigation season. The time
for lockage is scant fl
teen minutes. Boats save two hours
in passing Keokuk as compared with
the former canal with its three locks
by which they passed the Des Moines
rapids for forty years. The new dam
has drowned the rapids under many
feet Of water. Since there is no cost
to the government in making fire.
Quent lockages, the power coming
from the water power turbines in
stalled for the war department, the
lockmasters are not objecting to the
lock being made the mecca of ap-
parently all the summer sightseers IN
q half dozen surrounding states.