The Glasgow courier. [volume] (Glasgow, Mont.) 1913-current, 1943-06-24
Switch To Be Thrown
At Omaha to Set Big
Wheel in Operation
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE TO STAGE
PROGRAM AT CIVIC CENTER
TO SIGNALIZE EVENT

Eastern Montans's first hydro
electric power development will be-
come a reality Wednesday night,
June 30, when, by remote control,
a huge generator is set in motion
in the power plant at Fort Peck
dam. worlds largest earth-fill
/ structure. on the Missouri river.
/ This moment. the elimination of
many years efforts by power and
irrigation supporters, will be sig
nalized at a public program staged
in the Glasgow civic center at 8
Wednesday night by the Chamber
of Commerce.
Lieut.. Col. Howard H. Roberts.
Fort Peck district engineer, will
be a participant in the program
personally representing the corps
of engineers which supervised the
construction of the power project,
now going into operation ahead of
the scheduled date. The big wheel
will be started when a switch is
thrown in Omaha by Col. Lewis
A. Pick. Missouri river division en-
gineer.
For War Production
Thus will be brought into Mon
tana lines another large block of
power that will be available when
needed for keeping the states wal
production at peak level. 1t can be
speeded over the engineers $4,000
volt line stretching from Fort Peck
to Rainbow dam at Great Falls.
there to be switched into the net
work of the Montana Power conf
pany covering much of Montana.
BY power pooling and intercon-
nections, it can even help to pro-
vide energy for war production in
other states.
The Glasgow program will be
brief and informal, recognizing
wartime conditions. and hardly in
dicative of the importance this
section of the state attaches to
Fort Peck power.
1t will open with a brief welcome
by Mayor E. j. Kjelstrup of Glas-
gov to visiting guests and a short
talk by E. D. Benson, president OF
the Chamber of Commerce. He will
turn the program ove to Colonel
Roberts. who will call ON several
men closely identified with the
construction and installation of the
generator. The final speaker will
give a signal whereby Colonel Pick
will set the generator in motion
Omaha.
The local committee in charge Of
arrangements is composed of T. j.
Hooking. chairman: Otto M. Christ
nson, F. S. Mueller, Paul ]. Camp
bell and R. L. Irle.
Dam Started in '33
It was ten years ago next Octo-
1er that the first crews employed
" the corps of engineers began
operations on the Missouri
liver bottom 10 miles southeast of
Glasgow. The next year, almost
,vernight, a whole city rose on the
benchlands above Fort
Peck dam site and by the autumn
# 1884 the first of four huge cut
er-head suction dredges began TO
fill on the site of the dam. 1t
vas during that summer that the
'ower line was built from Rainbow
am to transmit the electricity for
perating the dredgeS and their
u~Xiliaries. Now, with the dam long
ince completed, electric energy will
e routed the opposite direction.
At the peak of operations, in
936. Fort Peck provided employ
lent for as many as 10000 workers
busy on the dam itself, in driv-
10 the four great diversion tun-
els around its east abutment and
l constructing a Spillway that. in
n extreme flood, could accommodate
I excess of the highest recorded
low of the Missouri. BY 1888. the
arth barrier was backing up water
l a reservoir that will ultimately
,retch upstream 100 miles, Gre
ting a storage second only to
dam.
Lake 1S5 Feet Deep
The reservoir created by the Fort
eek dam is now at its highest
vel since storage began. The water
ehind the dam is 1876 feet deep
nd, in terms of storage, is about
alf full.
The February flows in the Mis-
,uri above Fort Peck were the
.ghest in more than so years. The
,ak flows in March were twice as
.gh as the peak during the June
Sc of 194I and exceeded the peak
.ws in 1884. 1885, 1886, 1910 and
Continued on last page.)
rHS Presented