Hauser dam

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Hauser Dam / Hauser Lake
View upstream at the Hauser Dam after the collapse on April 14, 1908
View upstream at the Hauser Dam after the collapse on April 14, 1908
Location: Montana (USA)
Tributaries: Missouri River
Drain: Missouri River
Major cities nearby: Helena
Hauser Dam / Hauser Lake (Montana)
Hauser Dam / Hauser Lake
Coordinates 46 ° 45 '54 "  N , 111 ° 53' 9"  W Coordinates: 46 ° 45 '54 "  N , 111 ° 53' 9"  W.
Data on the structure
Construction time: 1905–1907 (1st dam) /
1908–1911 (2nd dam)
Height of the barrier structure : 23 m
Crown length: 192 m
Power plant output: 14 MW
Data on the reservoir
Altitude (at congestion destination ) 1114  m
Hauser Dam - 1908 - West end.jpg
View downstream on the west side after the collapse on April 14, 1908

The Hauser Dam ( English Hauser Dam , Hauser Lake Dam ) on the Missouri River is located about 22 km northeast of Helena , Montana in the USA . In front of today's dam there was a steel dam built between 1905 and 1907 , which broke in 1908 and caused a tidal wave and great damage. From 1908 to 1911 a new run-of-river power plant was built by the PPL Corporation, which still exists today and can produce an output of 19 megawatts with six turbines.

The old steel dam

The construction of the dam

The original dam was built by the governor and businessman Samuel Thomas Hauser and his Missouri River Power Company. It was a barrage of steel on foundations made of masonry .

JF Jackson, a bridge and steel construction engineer from Wisconsin, designed the barrier and the Wisconsin Bridge and Iron Company built it. Martin Gerry was the site manager . Gerry and Wisconsin bridge engineer James McKittrick argued over the design several times, and Gerry initiated a series of changes to strengthen the lock.

The dam was 192 m long and 23 m high. The middle 90 m was founded on gravel, while the rest was founded on rock on both sides. That is why sheet piles were driven into the bottom of the river bed in the middle section and the steel of the structure was connected to the sheet pile wall . On the sheet pile wall there was a triangular foundation made of masonry and a cap made of concrete that was supposed to support the dam. The barrier itself was made of inclined steel plates.

Another layer of concrete was applied to the water side of the barrier, and a 6 m thick and 90 m wide layer of volcanic ash was applied to the river bed as a sealing carpet against seepage in front of the barrier . The flood relief was 150 m wide and 4 m deep. Ten horizontally mounted turbines with an output of 14 megawatts were housed in a hydropower plant . The total cost of the structure was $ 1.5 million. On February 12, 1907, the Hauser Dam was put into operation. It was named after Samuel T. Hauser.

The dam breach

Reconstruction, photo from late 1908

On April 14, 1908, around 2:30 p.m., the Hauser lock failed after the water pressure undermined the masonry foundation. The steel itself remained structurally intact. The first sign of trouble was cloudy water that began to gush from the base of the dam near the power station. One employee, realizing the danger, ran into the power plant and called to everyone to run for their lives. About 15 minutes later, the foundation gave way causing the upstream portion of the barrier to give way, creating a 9 m wide breach. The water flowing through the breach hollowed out the foundation further and six minutes later a 90 m wide section of the barrier lost its hold. The power station was only slightly damaged. A 7.5 to 9 m high water wave went down the valley. The remaining parts of the dam, which were anchored in the rock, held back part of the water, so that its destructive power was somewhat reduced. In the capital of Montana, Helena, Gerry received a phone call from the operator stating that the dam had been destroyed. He immediately sent telegrams to all cities and towns downstream, warning them of the flood. A Great Northern Railway locomotive was dispatched to the town of Great Falls , Montana, to inform all stations on their way of the dam break.

The tidal wave

The warnings and the geological nature of the Missouri below the lock ensured no one was killed. The construction site equipment at the Holter Dam, which was under construction, was washed away. Gary Cooper , who later became famous as an actor, and his family, who lived in the Seven Bar Nine Ranch, were informed in good time and evacuated. The tide reached the small town of Craig , Montana at 7:00 p.m., but the narrow Missouri valley above the town held back much water and lessened its destructiveness. The residents had been warned early enough and had fled. At first the press reported that the city had been washed away, but it was not, as only a few huts and the train station were devastated. The iron bridge at Craig, which is usually three feet above the water, was covered two inches with water and it was feared that it would collapse, but it held. The Great Northern Railway (United States) from Craig to Ulm , Montana was under water. Workers at the Boston and Montana Smelter in Great Falls improvised a wing dam to keep the water out of the smelter and blew up part of the Black Eagle Dam to divert the water, but that wasn't necessary because of the Missouri rose here by only 2.1 m. The damage was estimated at more than $ 1 million.

At the end of the 20th century, fragments of the lock could still be found on the banks of the Missouri River.

See also

Literature on the subject

  • Aarstad, Rich; Arguimbau, Ellen; Baumler, Ellen; Porsild, Charlene L. and Shovers, Brian: Montana Place Names From Alzada to Zortman. Helena, Montana: Montana Historical Society Press Press, 2009.
  • Anez, Bob: PP&L Global Buying Montana Power Plants for $ 1.6 Billion. Associated Press. November 2, 1998.
  • Axline, Jon .: Conveniences Sorely Needed: Montana's Historic Highway Bridges, 1860-1956. Helena, Montana: Montana Historical Society Press, 2005.
  • Axline, Jon. "Hauser Dam." METNet.MT.gov. No date. accessed on Sept. 20, 2010
  • Berg, Christian: Montanan's Reject Buying PPL Dams. Allentown Morning Call. November 7, 2002.
  • Clary, Jean: Lewis & Clark on the Upper Missouri. Stevensville, Mont .: Stoneydale Press Publishing Co., 1999.
  • Dam bursts in Montana. New York Times . April 15, 1908.
  • Dennison, Mike: A New Plan for Holter Dam Repairs. Great Falls Tribune. May 25, 2000.
  • Fishing Access to All PPL Dams in Montana Now Prohibited. In: Associated Press. May 9, 2003.
  • Gallagher, Susan: Drive to Buy Montana Hydroelectric Dams Announced. In: Associated Press. November 20, 2001.
  • Goodspeed, Weston Arthur: The Province and the States, A History of the Province of Louisiana Under France and Spain, and of the Territories and States of the United States Formed Therefrom. Madison, Wisc .: Weston Historical Association, 1904.
  • Hall, JH: Montana. Helena, Mont .: Independent Publishing Co., 1912.
  • Harts, William W .: Discussion: Forests and Reservoirs in Their Relation to Stream Flow With Particular Reference to Navigable Rivers. In: Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers. March 1909.
  • "JB Snow, 79, Dead." New York Times. June 18, 1947.
  • Jackson, Donald C .: Dams. Brookfield, Vt .: Ashgate, 1997.
  • Johnson, Charles S .: MPC to Sell Power Plants. In: The Missoulian. December 10, 1997.
  • King, Ernest W. "Annual Address." Journal of the Association of Engineering Societies. March 1906.
  • Malone, Michael P .: The Battle for Butte: Mining and Politics on the Northern Frontier, 1864-1906. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2006.
  • "MPC Casts Doubt on $ 30 Million Tax Payment on Dam Sales." Associated Press. March 3, 1999.
  • Murphy, Jerre C. The Comical History of Montana: A Serious Story for Free People. San Diego: El Scofield, 1912.
  • Robbins, Chuck: Flyfisher's Guide to Montana. Belgrade, Mont .: Wilderness Adventures Press, 2005.
  • Shearer, Benjamin F .: Louisiana to Ohio. Westport, Conn .: Greenwood Press, 2004.
  • Smith, Barrett: The Hauser Lake and Wolf Creek Projects . In: Stone & Webster public service journal . 1908 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
  • Swindell, Larry: The Last Hero: A Biography of Gary Cooper. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1980.
  • Terzaghi, Karl; Peck, Ralph B .; Mesri, Gholamreza: Soil Mechanics in Engineering Practice. New York: Wiley, 1996.
  • "Two Towns Swept By Montana Flood." New York Times. April 16, 1908.
  • Upper Missouri River Reservoir Fisheries Management Plan, 2010–2019. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission. Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. May 13, 2010. Accessed September 20, 2010
  • Edward Wegmann: The design and construction of dams: including masonry, earth, rock-fill, timber, and steel structures, also the principal types of movable dams . John Wiley & Sons, inc., New York 1918 ( limited preview in Google Book search).

Web links

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  1. ↑ PPL Hydro: Hauser Dam ( Memento of the original from July 25, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed September 21, 2010 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.pplmontana.com
  2. ↑ a b Hall, Montana, 1912, p. 135
  3. ↑ Jackson, Dams, 1997, pp. 65-66
  4. ↑ a b c d e Axline, "Hauser Dam," METNet.MT.gov, undated
  5. ↑ a b c d Wegmann, The Design and Construction of Dams, 1918, p. 298
  6. ^ Smith, "The Hauser Lake and Wolf Creek Projects," Stone & Webster Public Service Journal, Oct. 1908, pp. 236-237
  7. ^ Harts, "Discussion: Forests and Reservoirs in Their Relation to Stream Flow With Particular Reference to Navigable Rivers," Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, March 1909, p. 356
  8. ↑ Aarstad, et al., Montana Place Names From Alzada to Zortman, 2009, p. 119
  9. ↑ Terzaghi, Peck, and Mesri, Soil Mechanics in Engineering Practice, 1996, p. 478
  10. ^ A b c d e f g "Two Towns Swept By Montana Flood," New York Times, April 16, 1908
  11. ^ "Dam Bursts in Montana," New York Times, April 15, 1908
  12. ^ A b Smith, "The Hauser Lake and Wolf Creek Projects," Stone & Webster Public Service Journal, October 1908, p. 237
  13. ↑ Swindell, The Last Hero: A Biography of Gary Cooper, 1980, p. 12
  14. ↑ Axline, Conveniences Sorely Needed: Montana's Historic Highway Bridges, 1860-1956, 2005, p 49