Industrial History: Ohio River Waterway Overview and Wicket Dams

Before the glaciation of North America, there was no Ohio River. Please click the nkytribune link for a description of how the glaciers dammed the Teays River and caused the Ohio River to be carved into the landscape.

nkytribune

History of Navigation in the Ohio River Basin

1:48 video of how the wickets were raised on L&D #52

USACE-locks

USACE, p43

Another Wicket Dam resource

USACE-history and marionky
How the 15-member crew raises the wickets for Dam #52

EastLiverpoolHistoricalSociety
[This site also has another photo of a maneuver boat working and a photo of water spilling over wickets.]

From orsanco:

Mile Point	Name	Normal Pool Elevation (ft)*	Year Placed in Operation**
6.2	Emsworth	710.0	1921
13.2	Dashields	692.0	1929
31.7	Montgomery	682.0	1936
54.4	New Cumberland	664.5	1959
84.2	Pike Island	644.0	1963
126.4	Hannibal	623.0	1972
161.7	Willow Island	602.0	1972
203.9	Belleville	582.0	1965
237.5	Racine	560.0	1967
279.2	Robert C. Byrd	538.0	1937
341.0	Greenup	515.0	1962
436.2	Meldahl	485.0	1964
531.5	Markland	455.0	1963
606.8	McAlpine	420.0	1961
720.7	Cannelton	383.0	1972
776.1	Newburgh	358.0	1975
846.0	Uniontown	342.0	1975
918.5	Smithland	324.0	1980
938.9	Lock and Dam 52	302.0	1928
962.6	Lock and Dam 53	290.0	1929
964.6	Olmsted	290.0	2018

* Height of water surface above mean sea level (National Geodetic Vertical Data)
** Year placed in operation defined as when the pool was raised.
Information provided by the United States Corps of Engineers – Ohio River Division

Floods (55% coal!) Markland Dam accident (reference used in McAlpine Locks) (Update: 2021, but now the link is broke! Maybe I should start copying the contents of web pages.)

I added the above information since I wrote the following. Obviously, these notes are still rather raw.

Studying the bridges and dams on the Ohio, Illinois, and Mississippi is a main component of my long term plan for this blog. But, in the meantime, I've started this page on the Ohio River as a "holding tank" for URLs and factoids concerning the Ohio. I'm doing this "raw" page for now because I already can't find a very interesting page I saw about a year ago written by someone that used to work on one of the Ohio wicket dams. So now I'm trying to record links and facts as I find them so that when I'm ready to write more on a topic I don't have to hunt for them again.

While researching Bear Trap Dams, I came across Don Prout's page about the Fern Bank Dam. It explains that the original canalization of the Ohio was authorized by Congress in 1878 to use 49 dams, each of which raised the water level by 9 feet with a 100x600 ft. lock. These were wicket dams. But it took until 1911 before the Fern Bank Dam was built as dam #37.

In 1963, 19 new dams were planned, each of which raised the water level 25 feet (another source said 30-35 ft.) with a 110x1200 ft. lock. The new dams allowed the passage of the bigger tows that were beginning to be used. And getting rid of the wicket dams eliminated what had to be the difficult job of raising and lowering the wickets. The wickets would be in the raised position about 5 months during the dry season.

Dam&Lock #37 was near Aurora, IN, which is near Cincinnati. Newburgh, IN, had #47, which was constructed in 1928. The new Newburgh Dam was completed in 1975.

From http://www.switzcomuseums.org/pdf_files/river_pdfs/Locks_and_Dams.pdf

In the 1950’s the Corps of Engineers began replacing the 51 lock and

dams with 19 high-lift dams. These new lock and dams have a fixed dam with two lock chambers one 1200-foot and one 600-foot. Most of these locks have a lift of 30-35 feet and can accommodate a towboat and 15 barges. Eighteen of the high-lift lock and dams are in place.

However, two of the wicket dams still exist on the Ohio, numbers 52 and 53. They are being replaced with a new lock and dam scheduled to open in 2008. (Note: although only 51 of the proposed 54 locks were built they were numbered as if all would be built.)

The original lock at lock and dam 39 was on the Indiana side of the river. In 1953, when the high-lift lock and dam was authorized at Markland, the decision was made to build the lock on the Kentucky side. Construction began on the locks in 1956 and was completed by 1959. The new locks consist of a 110’ by 1200’ lock and an auxiliary lock of 110’ by 600’. The high-lift dam was started in 1959 and completed in 1964. The Markland locks have a lift of 35 feet and replaced lock and dams 35, 36, 37, 38, and 39.

2 photos of lock #50, late 1970s

From http://myvintagecameras.blogspot.com/2013/10/wicket-dam-and-lock-34-on-ohio-river.html:

Wicket Dams were installed along the Ohio River from 1879-1929, to maintain a navigable channel year round. Previously the Ohio River might be only 1-2 feet deep in places by the end of the summer.

The last Wicket Dams on the Ohio remained in operation through the 1970's.

Wicket Dam

A description of wickets in the Engineering News-record

Cincinnati bridges

A video about wicket dam #37 (source)

Dan Kemper posted, Photo Courtesy of Nadine Hofmann.
Lock 5 on the Ohio, March 1933.

Dan Kemper posted, Photo Courtesy of Nadine Hofmann.
Ohio river, lock 14. 2/28/1934. Breaking Ice.
David Smith: Boat in the chamber is the SENATOR CORDILL. She speared a wicket while running the pass up bound in the early morning hours of February 5, 1934 and sank near the end of the upper guide wall. The wicket she hit had not properly lowered due to the ice. She has been raised and moved into the chamber in this photo. She was moved into the mouth of Fish Creek later to be out of the way of ice as it broke up and flowed downstream. She was then taken to the Engineer’s fleet in the mouth of Muskingum River at Marietta, and was ultimately dismantled by Zubik at Pittsburgh.
Dan Kemper: The pass being an opening in the wicket to permit passage when river levels were high enough to bypass the lock?
Cornelia Reade-Hale: Dan Kemper correct. They would drop the wickets flat & the boats could just go on by. But as noted due to ice one wicket didn't flatten all the way & speared her. My dad always said it was one of the saddest days ever!!
Dale Zubik: I Helped take out Lock # 14 the wickets Bear Traps and outside Lock wall ! ( I would say 1975 ? )

Dan Kemper posted, Photo Courtesy of Nadine Hofmann.
Lock 14 Ohio River 2/28/1934. Lower approach. Hauling Ice out of the way.

Dan Kemper posted, Photo Courtesy of Nadine Hofmann.
Brady Beckman: Not too many of those old strong backs around, all newer miter gates have either center point picks or two point pick lifting lugs installed on the gates for lifting them in and out these days.