White River Valley Historical Quarterly

Volume 1, Number 7
Spring 1963

LAKE TANEYCOMO and POWERSITE DAM FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY

Lake Taneycomo shortly after completion of Powersite Dam
 Photo courtesy Empire District Etectric Co.

"There are some dams that are longer and some that are higher, but to the best of our knowledge this is the biggest dam in this country that is used exclusively for the generation of electricity for com mercial purposes. Some idea of the size of the structure may be obtained from the figures here, but to really understand just how big this thing is it will be necessary to visit the plant and see for yourself. The entire length of the structure is something over twelve hundred feet, of which the power house takes up 210 feet, the spillway of the dam 576 feet, and the corewall at the north side of the river 440 feet."


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"Along in the fall of 1911, the Ambursen people began to get their men and machinery on the ground and prepare to put the plans into execution."

-- F. F. Baily

"A. J. Zwart was the first one who came down or the promoters for Powersite Dam-Morrison
and McCall, who had offices in St. Louis, and had a franchise from the government to build the dam. After the first survey, they sent for my father, M. L. Holman of St. Louis, who was consulting engineer. He advised them to go down the river about five miles. I had come down here first in 1911, and had been living at the first dam site. I picked out the location where the dam is now, about two miles above old Forsyth. It was known as the Sam Wheeler property. Jim Root, J. C. and J. H. Parrish also owned farms there."

"The dam is being constructed by the Ambursen Hydraulic Con struction Co., of Boston, Mass., who are agents for the White River Construction Co., and is to be of the celebrated Ambursen type which is rapidly becoming the best known and most popular hydraulic structure known to the engineering profession."

Taney County Republican
 Dec. 7, 1911
Photos courtesy Juanita Franklin and Dr. L. S. Shumate
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Photo courtesy Empire District Electric Co.
Second from left: T. C. Kennedy, secretary of the White River Construction Co, and purchasing agent; 4th from left: Russell T. Bailey, resident engineer; 5th from left: W. E. Maxon, superintendent of construc tion for Ambursen Hydraulic Construction Co.


"The work at the dam is in charge of Superintendent W. E. Maxon, a man of rare capabilities and experience. His assistants are Mr. Gallagher, general foreman; Mr. McLean, master mechanic; Mr. Caley, office manager. The engineering department is in charge of Mr. S. E. Rockwell, who is daily expected at the dam. His assistants now in charge of engineering are Mr. R. T. Bailey and H. R. Sargent."
Taney Co. Republican, December 7, 1911

'Fifty or sixty wagons and teams were used by the Ozark Power Company to haul supplies from the railroad at Branson to the dam. When the river was up, they had to ferry the river twice, at Compton's Ferry below Roark, and at Chapman's Ferry about two miles above the dam site. We had three wagons come down every day from the Branson rail road to supply the commissary which I took over at Camp Ozark in 1912."

Photo courtesy Juanita Fra nklin and Dr. L. S. Shumate
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'THERE IS GOING TO BE PLENTY OF WORK AT THE DAM FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO WORK"
Taney County Republican, Nov. 23, 1911

 

"The beginning of actual construction of the dam on White River above Forsyth marks a new period of prosperity in the his tory of Taney County. It is by far the largest single piece of structural work ever attempted in this section, and with the in creased number of laborers and skilled workmen brought into the country a large benefit will surely be felt by the county as a whole. (It) will represent an expenditure of about $500,000."

 

"Four of the big barges had been landed that morning from Branson, each carrying a big load of the tools and machinery to be used in the work. These barges made the trip from Branson to the landing, something like 16 miles . .. in three hours and ten minutes."

(Dec. 28, 1911)

 

"Each of the barges is about ten by thirty feet and are built of heavy two and one half inch planks ... When loaded the boats will draw something like eighteen Inches to two feet of water. It is estimated that it will require about seven hundred and fifty carloads of cement in the con struction . . no small thing to transport from the railroad."

Photos courtesy Juanita Franklin and Dr. L. S. Shumate
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THE AMBURSEN HOLLOW DAM


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"Taking into consideration the large number of men employed and the hazardous employment that a great many of them were engaged in, it seems remarkable that they escaped with so few ser ious accidents, and only one fatality." (The one fatality was Carl Kressig who drowned when thrown from a barge making a landing at the dam.)

 

C. H. Holman was in charge of the men working on the upper river survey. In the picture below are: Goff, Hibbard, Thomas, Bre itenstein, Breedon , Sar gent, Dooms, Hall, Sargent, Hol man, Lewis, and Whitlock.

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"Old timers here know what the river can do when she gets her back up"
Taney County Republican

 

Flood waters roar downstream toward Forsyth



"When the lake was filled, the ground below the spillway was rapidly eaten away by the water which poured over in a stream almost six hundred feet wide and almost six feet deep."


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Photo courtesy Empire District Electric Co.





"The writer can think of nothing to compare with the view of it that time any nearer than a wide sheet of yellow velvet suspended from the top of the dam. Of course, the water coming down so suddenly as is did, the entire lake having filled in about forty- eight hours, was . . . full of yellow sand that gave a most beautiful color to the great body of water that was pouring over the top.

"The lake made by this dam is something over twenty miles in length and from a quarter to three quarters of a mile wide, and affords many beautiful sites for club houses, camps, and permanent homes..


"As the dam was being completed, Maxon asked f or reports on the river. I had observers at different points upstream, and just when they made the closure, the observers began to telephone in that there had been a cloudburst upriver. We had expected the lake to take two to three weeks to fill since there had been little rain, but it filled in less than two days."

"A wide sheet of yellow velvet suspended from the top of the dam"

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