The first Federal improvements
for navigation on the Ohio River came in 1824 with the removal of snags
and sandbars. These measures were effective, but they were only temporary—new
sandbars would appear after every flood. They also provided no relief against
low water, which stopped navigation almost every year. The construction
of a dam with a stable pool and a lock bypassing the dam would have ended
problems caused by low water, but the shippers who needed the full width
of the river for maneuvering were opposed to a dam.
A compromise solution was a movable
dam that could be raised in times of low water to create a pool and lowered
when the flow was adequate for navigation. The dams finally built had a
series of Chanoine wickets, invented by Frenchman Jacques Chanoine, extending
across the river. A system of 50 movable dams was built on the Ohio River
between 1879 and 1929, making the Ohio navigable for its entire length
at all times.
Each dam actually consists of a
row of 300 or more little dams, individually hinged to a foundation on
the river bottom. The wickets are constructed of heavy timber about 4 feet
wide and up to 20 feet long. Raising or lowering the wickets is done by
a crew on a maneuver boat that moves along the upstream face of the dam.
A bar is connected to the back of each wicket with the free end riding
in a groove in the foundation. To raise them, a grapple hooks a wicket
and pulls it from the bed of the river. The bar slides up the groove to
a niche, where it catches and supports the wicket upright against the flow
of the river.
The advent of the more powerful
diesel tow-boat after World War II greatly increased the size of the tows
operating on the Ohio River. The tows were longer than the 600-foot locks
and had to be broken into two segments for locking, more than doubling
the time necessary for a lockage. A modernization program was begun on
the Ohio in the 1950s to replace the old dams and the undersized locks
with higher dams and longer locks, making the locking operation faster
and less frequent. By 1977, all but the lowest four wicket dams had been
replaced. It was at these old wooden dams that ice during the winter of
'77 threatened structural damage.
Wicket Folk
Left to Right Seated:
Eddie Nunn, Wicket Lock and Dam 50 &
Smithland Locks and Dam;
Carl Ball, Wicket Lock and Dam 45 &
Cannelton Locks and Dam;
Harvey R. Morton,
Wicket Lock and Dam 45 & Uniontown Locks & Dam.
Left to right Standing:
James (Herschel) Belt, Wicket Lock and
Dam 45, Wicket Lock and Dam 50 and Smithland Locks & Dam;
Tom Diaz, Wicket Lock and Dam 50 &
Smithland Locks and Dam
Lawrence “Mac” McClellan (Left) -
Wicket Lock and Dam 51 & Smithland Locks & Dam
I. W. ("Dub") Cook (Right) - Wicket
Lock and Dam 50, Wicket Lock & Dam 52 & Smithland Locks & Dam
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