Locks and Dams

East Dubuque Local Area History Project

	by J. K. 5/2/00
	The Mississippi gets lower and lower as it went from its source and then to its mouth. In some places, it had rocks and sand bars and also was very shallow in some places. Way back in the old days before the locks and dams, when there were long dry summers, the water would get lower and lower and soon the boats could not move along the water. It was very hard for the boats to travel on the upper part of the Mississippi. In 1930, Congress decided to built a series of locks and dams that held back the water here, and then the next one a few feet higher, and the next one a little higher than that one. The locks held back the water to a set depth and the boats went in to the locks and the doors shut behind them then the water would rise or sink depending on which way the boats were headed. This would help move freight on the Mississippi more easily.

	In 1920 the idea of a nine-foot channel on the Upper Mississippi was brought up and this new idea was not just a dream anymore, but it became a possibility. In the year 1910, Congress had come up with a design of a nine-foot channel that had a 110 by 600 foot lock on the Ohio River. A more practical project was started on The Illinois River in 1914. In the early 1920s, the two projects were nearly finished. The strong pressure for the nine-foot channel was provided by the Upper Mississippi and the St. Croix Improvement Commission. President Herbert C. Hoover liked the new project and saw it as a public work project which provided benefits to the public way after it was done giving work to the unemployed.

	The Army Corps of Engineers were in charge of the project. In 1932, the planning was completed. The locks were to begin in St. Louis, Missouri, and end in Minneapolis, Minnesota. There were to be over twenty locks and dams altogether. Three locks and dams had been built during earlier river improvement work. One was built in St. Anthony Falls at Minneapolis, where there was a waterfall, and one was built in Moline at Rock River rapids, and one at Keokuk Iowa, where there were rapids at the place the Des Moines River joins the Mississippi.

	Each lock and dam was given an identifying number, although people often call the locks and dams by the names of the towns they are closest to. The Army Engineers numbered the Minneapolis lock and dam number one, and the Keokuk lock and dam nineteen. Dubuque is number eleven, and is named the Zebulon Pike Lock and Dam.

	In the early 1930s all the planning was complete and the locks and dams were being built. Work started on Lock and Dam number 4 at Alma, Missouri first. The other locks and dams were started soon after that. In order to work, they had to dam off part of the river to build the forms and pour the concrete.

	Plans changed while working on number 6 at Winona, Minnesota. The workers realized that the dam would raise the water level and flood the town. Because of this they decided to add another lock and dam above Winona and number it 5A. Because of adding the extra lock, the lift at locks 5 and 6 are only five feet. These are the smallest in the system.

	Lock and Dam number 23 at Louisiana, Missouri, was never built Army engineers decided that they could build Lock and Dam 24 with a lift that was 15 feet instead of the planned 10 foot lift. This plan needed a lot of dredging and diking, and by doing this they could get rid of Lock and Dam number 23 that was in the original plans.

	Lock 26 had a lift that measured about twenty-five feet and lock 19 and lock 1 were about thirty-eight feet. Locks 25, 24, and 15 had lifts that were and still are fifteen feet. The other lock and dams out of the first twenty-four on the Upper Mississippi only had ten foot lifts and by 1939 the lock and dams were in operation.

	The locks and dams were finished in 1939 and were all in use. They added two more locks and dams after World War II. One was added at East St. Louis. Double locks were added at Minneapolis, Minnesota.

	To get a line of barges through a lock, it takes a lot of patience and a skilled tugboat captain. The tugboat has to line up the row of barges with the lock. There is only 1.5 feet of clearance on each side. Nine barges fit in the lock. Then they are tied off and disconnected from the other six and the tugboat has to back the other six out of the way. The first nine lock through and drift out of the lock. The tugboat and the other six barges then go into the lock chamber and lock through. This process take about 1.5 to 2 hours and is called a double lockage.

	The Army Corps of Engineers operates and maintains the locks. Anybody can use the locks, but they have to follow rules set by Congress. A certain order of priority must be followed. Government boats go first, and then US mail boats. Commercial vessels like barges go next, and finally pleasure boats. Towboats pay fuel taxes that help support the Army Corps of Engineers. As you can see, locks and dams are very important to river transportation on the upper Mississippi River.

	Bibliography Larson, Capt. Ron. Upper Mississippi River History. Winona, Minnesota. Steamboat Press, 1995. Lyon, Randolph W. Dubuque :The Encyclopedia. Dubuque Iowa: Union Hoermann Press, 1991. Photos Courtesy of Center for Dubuque History. Loras College, Dubuque, Iowa.