Top Photo by Ed Vinson Photography

Story Timeline

Stories Developing

    These articles, appearing over the next three years and culminating in June 2013, will tell the story of an amazing event in the history of not only the tri-state area but of the world — the building of our very own dam and powerhouse. Because it has always been here, nobody remembers what life was like before the dam was built. Indeed, probably nothing in history has changed everyday life in our area as much as it has.
     These articles will give a history of the Mississippi River, starting from a few million years ago when it flowed west of where Keokuk is now located to the beginning of the twentieth century. We will tell of Army Lt. Robert E. Lee's survey, from 1835 to 1837, that originally defined the future eastern boundary of southeast Iowa prior to the territory’s being opened for settlement. This will be followed by the story of the canal that was built thirty years later to overcome the navigational obstructions on the Mississippi River resulting from the Des Moines Rapids, located between and north of Keokuk and Hamilton.