Dam Good Stories

Book tours and talks are rituals publishers schedule for authors to generate book sales. Authors often say they are exhausting and can be frustrating when the turnout is small and/or resulting book sales are disappointing. I view book talks differently. I love dams, and every dam has a story. I focus on talks near places that played an important role in my book. Selling books is not my primary goal. I try to paint a historical picture emphasizing the local connection with events depicted in my book that audiences can relate to and enjoy—a story they will remember and pass along to others. And I value their remembrances in return. What could be better than coupling that with exploring the area and being led on in-depth tours of nearby hydroelectric facilities by representatives of local electric utilities?

Here’s an example. I was invited to give a talk near Paducah KY, at the site on the Tennessee River of the TVA’s mightiest dam, Kentucky Dam. Kentucky Lake, the largest manmade lake by area east of the Mississippi River, creates a 184-mile-long navigation channel stretching upriver behind the dam to Pickwick Dam. My grandfather, George P. Jessup, was the TVA project manager for the dam’s construction. I was born in Paducah as the dam was nearing completion, and my mother and I lived there until my father returned from wartime overseas Army duty about six months later. I had not been back since.

My talk was co-sponsored by the Jackson Purchase Historical Society (“JPHS”) and the National Hydropower Association, and hosted by the Kentucky Dam Village State Resort Park at its beautiful facilities overlooking the dam. JPHS is closely connected with Murray State University. Students and faculty there have done impressive work helping to preserve the history of the TVA and Kentucky Dam.

My talk focused on the Kentucky Dam story. Among the topics were:

• The TVA’s formation, its early years, and its dam building program.

• Arthur E. Morgan, the TVA’s first chairman and chief engineer, his feud with fellow director David E. Lilienthal, and his firing by President Franklin D. Roosevelt for “contumacious” behavior.

• Morgan’s clandestine campaign to build a colossal, 5.5-mile-long earthen dam on the Ohio River just above Paducah to simultaneously control the Ohio, Tennessee, and Cumberland rivers, instead of building the less ambitious Kentucky Dam on the Tennessee River.

• The monumental Ohio River flood of 1937 that submerged 95 percent of Paducah and forced 27,000 of its 33,000 residents to flee to higher ground. My grandfather still is known for a TVA task force he organized and led to assist people marooned there. The task force evacuated and transported over 15,000 stranded residents.

• Kentucky Dam’s key role in controlling floods on the lower Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Authorization for its construction was hastened by the Flood of 1937.

• Factors driving the design for the Kentucky Dam project. The 206-foot height of the dam was set to create a 9-foot navigation channel upstream to Pickwick Dam. The dam, the TVA’s longest, had to stretch across the entire 1.6-mile-wide river flood plain. To drive the cofferdam pilings to the area’s deeply buried bedrock, the maximum cofferdam height had to be an unprecedented 100 plus feet. The navigation lock had to handle large river barges. The main Chicago-to-New-Orleans railroad line crossing the river at the dam site had to be relocated. Although the original plans did not include hydroelectric power generation, plans soon were revised to add five 32 MW generators. And, since the dam site was only 75 miles from the epicenter of the 1811–12 New Madrid earthquakes, the most powerful ever to hit the United States east of the Rockies, it was imperative to design the dam to withstand earthquake shock.

• The immensity of the construction project. Building the dam took six years. The project provided desperately needed jobs. At the peak of construction, nearly 5,000 men were at work building the dam and preparing the reservoir area. Attracting and retaining workers in the war years was very difficult. Monthly turnover was over 20 percent. A major factor, in addition to men joining the armed forces, was the project’s 7-day workweek. And preparing the reservoir was a huge undertaking. It required mapping 700,000 acres of land, purchasing half that many, and clearing 50,000 acres. 2,609 families, 3,390 graves, and 365 miles of highways and railroads were relocated.

• The importance of the dam’s navigation lock. It literally became the Tennessee Valley’s doorway to the world beyond. Its completion was a major factor in stimulating the Valley’s economic development. Freight traffic on the Tennessee River grew from 2 million tons of cargo a year upon the completion of the lock to a peak of 50 million tons. The lock was the only lock on the Tennessee River designed by the TVA (all others by the Corps of Engineers). An adjoining lock twice as long as the existing lock now being constructed by the Corps will better accommodate today’s long barge tows and significantly lessen lock transit delays.

• The distinctive appearance of TVA dams. The dramatic, modernist designs were simple and functional. Ornamentation was avoided since it was reminiscent of structures built by the wealthy as monuments to themselves in the Gilded Age. The TVA built for the people in the Valley.

• The legendary project manager, George P. Jessup. Workers described him as demanding, gruff, impersonal, tough but fair. He was widely feared but highly respected. Workers became loyal to him. Many followed him from project to project. Jessup was a master organizer. He made things happen. He was notoriously hands-on and seemingly omnipresent. His office overlooked the work below, had huge windows, and a walkway just outside. He would pace and survey the construction through his binoculars, his telephone nearby. He would jump in his car and drive all through the project. He also made frequent upriver inspection trips by boat. He constantly clenched a curved-stem, Sherlock Holmes-style pipe in his teeth and wore a signature broad-brimmed hat. He was careful not to alter his appearance whenever he ventured upriver so that moonshiners emerging along the banks with guns would not mistake him for a “revenuer” and shoot him on sight.

• Construction project safety. Dam construction was hazardous work, especially in those pre-OSHA days. More than 200 men died during the construction of Hoover Dam. Jessup’s projects were cited multiple times as having the best accident record in the country for dam construction projects. There were 12 fatalities during the Kentucky project. One of Jessup’s innovations was offering first-aid classes to his workers. This training made assistance available more quickly when accidents did occur on a far-flung construction site. More than two thousand employees were trained on the Kentucky Dam project.

• Views of the TVA. Although Valley people generally viewed the TVA favorably, there were detractors. It was viewed by many as an occupying force—few key employees were from the Valley. The forced relocation of landowners led to strong resentment. The TVA purchased property from willing sellers as often as possible, but it also proceeded with condemnation when owners resisted. The prevailing feeling was that the TVA underpaid owners and roughly evicted them. It even burned houses of evicted people to keep them from returning. Sharecroppers typically got nothing and suddenly had nowhere to work. The best farmland often ended up under water. In little more than a decade, the TVA displaced 70,000 people from 467,000 acres of prime farmland. The reservoir issue would prove to be a major impediment to the expansion of hydropower in years ahead.

• Truman’s dam dedication. In October 1945, President Harry Truman flew into Paducah to dedicate Kentucky Dam. The dedication drew the largest crowd ever assembled in western Kentucky. The crowd was estimated at up to 20,000 people. Attendees included dignitaries such as Kentucky Senator Barkley (later Truman’s Vice President), fifteen members of Congress, George Marshall, Dean Acheson, Averell Harriman, and the TVA directors. In his speech, Truman extolled the TVA and advocated creation of similar regional agencies elsewhere. After the dedication, Truman and Jessup had a private conversation. They both were direct, gruff, plain-spoken. They cussed each other out. My grandfather Jessup called Truman a “damned fool” since Truman had made absolutely no reference to the thousands of workers who had built the TVA dams and uttered no thanks to them for what they had done. Truman’s reply was equally fiery.

Most of the people attending my talk had relatives who had worked on the Kentucky construction project or whose land had been submerged by Kentucky Lake. The extended discussion after my remarks was lively and stimulating as stories were shared.

Later in the day, my wife and I were able to take an in-depth tour of the dam and powerhouse and explore the scenic surrounding area. We traced the Tennessee River downstream from the dam until it emptied into the Ohio River and then followed the Ohio River until it flowed into the Mississippi River. We were impressed by the number and size of the barge tows we sighted. We spent the evening and time the next morning in historic downtown Paducah, which lies behind floodwalls on the banks of the Ohio River. It is charming, filled with distinctive galleries and restaurants. And the National Quilting Museum is not to be missed. I also was able to locate the house I had lived in as an infant.

Another fascinating book talk of mine was high in the Cascade Mountains at Concrete WA. This quaint, tiny town adjoins the site of Lower Baker Dam, sixteen miles down the Baker River from 10,781-feet-tall, snowcapped Mount Baker. The 293-feet-tall dam briefly was the tallest hydroelectric dam in the world. More importantly, it was the first dam to have fish ladders. Before the dam’s completion in 1925, fish never had been raised more than 50 feet (see my blog, “A Dam Good Fish Story”). My grandfather Jessup also supervised the construction of this dam.

Every dam does have a story. My book talks aim at sharing and celebrating those stories.