Evening star., 1939-10-29
Fort Peck Dam Fill
Will Be Completed
This Week
Lake l80 Miles Long
Will Be Backed Up
By 1914 or l945
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
FORT PECK. Mont, Oct. o.
One day next week a floating dredge
will send the last of more than
billion cubic yards of hydraulic fill
surging through a f1ve-mile pipe
line, completing the multimillion-
dollar Fort Peck Dam-largest
earth-flll structure ever built.
Maj. Clark Kittrell, army con-
struction engineer, said today the
huge barrier across the Missouri
River, started in 1884, will be COM
plete and ready" about November /.
Much work. however. will remain.
Next year the huge structure is to
be polished" control shafts and
valves completed and a power plant
installed.
Already a lake "a miles long. 7
miles across at its widest point and
containing some so billion gallons
of water has formed behind the dam.
which was closed June "a, 1887.
Lake 1S0 Miles Long.
Some time in the future, possibly
by 1914 or l945, the lake will be
180 miles long. have a maximum
clear width of 16 miles. a shore line
of 1900 miles, and store l9,4l2,OOO
acre-feet of water.
Virtual completion of the dam
this fall marks the end of the BOOM
let days it brought to this North
eastern Montana prairie section.
When construction work was at
its peak in 1886, more than 10000
men were employed About 3,700
men were working this year, but
next year, Maj. Kittrell estimates,
500 workers will be able to do the
job.
One untoward accident marked
building OF the dam. On September
%, 1888, section of the upstream
face of the structure. 1000 feet long
and between 200 and 300 feet wide,
slid into the reservoir, carrying eight
men to death.
mo basic engineering defects were
found after the slide" Maj. Kittrell
said. The board of consulting engi-
neers which examined the dam after
the slide recommended a few minor
structural changes, which have been
made.
If we weren't sure the dam was
solid in every way. ready to stand
forever, we wouldn't be finishing the
job"
Five Times Gatun.
When dredges finish pumping
hydraulic fill into the dam the
s114,000O00 structure will contain
about l,250,00O,0O0 cubic yards of
dirt and gravel-five times as much
as in the Gatun Dam in Panama,
now the worlds largest earth-f1ll
dam.
Next years polishing" will in
volve moving some 100000 cubic
yards of fill from one section of the
dam to another. and placing a pro-
tective layer of rocks over some
areas.
The power plant, estimated to cost
$7,OOO,O00 and have facilities for
generating los, 900 kilowatts of elec-
trlcity, will be completed in l941.
Machinery to be installed at first
will generate 10000 kilowatts.
The dam, rising $50 feet above
the river bed and 10000 feet long
was constructed primarily to provide
Increased navigation of the Mis-
souri, from its confluence with the
Mississippi to Sioux City, Iowa, 764
miles upstream.
Nine-Foot Channel.
River development plans call for
channel 8 to 9 feet deep and 200
feet wide open eight months of the
year from Sioux City, Iowa, to st.
Louis.
The barrier will hold in check,
during flood seasons, practically the
entire runoff of the Missouri River
drainage basin.
Through a gravity system, it would
be possible to irrigate approximately
10000 acres of farm land below the
dam.
Before the main job of building
started the town of Fort Peck was
built.
When the model town was out
grown several typical hard-cast con-
struction camps sprang up. These
were named New Deal, Wheeler and
Park Grove. They are expected to
disappear with completion of the
dam, while Fort Peck will remain
as administration headquarters to
house maintenance workers.