Dam field trip fascinates students
By Tim Gallagher Journal staff writer | Posted: Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Gavins Point Dam, as seen from just outside the Lewis and Clark Visitors Center at Yankton, S.D. (Photo by Tim Gallagher)
YANKTON, S.D. -- Jane Greene, science instructor at Woodbury Central High School in my town of Moville, Iowa, handed me a quiz Wednesday morning as I hopped off a big yellow school bus west of Yankton.
For the first time in two decades I had ridden a school bus. And now I had to complete a quiz, part of her ninth-graders' "Dam Field Trip" to Gavins Point Dam at Yankton. I went along as a dad/chaperone, trying to guide 22 of the 44 freshmen. Greene led the other 22.
Each year the freshman class tells Green they're going on a "Dam field trip." The joke never gets old. Senior valedictorian T.J. Wilcke mentioned the "Dam field trip" in his commencement address at Woodbury Central on Sunday.
Gavins Point Dam, I learned, was named for Michael Gavin, an Irish immigrant who owned land a couple of miles from where the $51 million dam was eventually built. While the site changed from his farm to make construction easier, officials decided the keep his name on the structure.
The dam itself was authorized by Congress as part of the 1944 Pick-Sloan Plan, which came about after a series of floods devastated farms, homes and communities all along the Missouri River in the early 1940s.
This dam is the last of six built on the Missouri, and the last one before the river empties into the Mississippi River at St. Louis, Mo.
"We have the smallest of the six dams on the Missouri," said Heather McDonald, a South Dakota State University student who leads tours for her summer job. "We have only three generators, but we have the most control as there are no other dams between here and the Gulf of Mexico."
Those generators provide enough electricity to light up at least 68,000 households.
Beyond flood control and power generation, the dam offers navigation support, fish and wildlife management and recreation. (That's one of Greene's quiz questions, by the way.)
Recreation was in full bloom Wednesday morning as at least a dozen boats fished near the dam, likely attempting to catch bass, walleye, catfish, paddle fish and more.
Lewis and Clark Lake, which is 28 miles long and was formed -- or impounded -- by the dam, starts at the site and measures 45 feet deep here, its deepest point. The lake, which boasts 90 miles of shoreline, welcomes 2 million visitors to the Yankton area each year.
The dam and lake contribute some $61 million to the local economy every year.
Some of this was spelled out by McDonald and fellow tour guide Laura Addison, a medical school student working here over the summer. They also took these freshman through the control area where engineers help control the dam electronically within a concrete structure that features walls 25 feet thick.
One of my favorite items was a wrench used in the building process here from 1952 to 1957. It weighs 169 pounds, if I remember. Biggest wrench I'd ever seen.
And one of the greatest grand openings took place here May 18, 1952, just over 56 years ago. A quick film at the Lewis and Clark Visitor Center just up the road shows footage and photos from the dam groundbreaking that attracted 8,000 people. Thousands would return five years later to watch crews work through the night to complete the dam's final section.
All told, it took 7 million cubic yards of earth fill to create the site.
After completing my quiz, taking in the marvel created a half-century ago by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, I came to this conclusion: The field trip was dam good.
Reach the Journal's Tim Gallagher at (712) 293-4229 or via e-mail at timgallagher@siouxcityjournal.com
Info: For information on Gavins Point Dam, call (402) 667-7873 or see www.yanktonsd.com
For the first time in two decades I had ridden a school bus. And now I had to complete a quiz, part of her ninth-graders' "Dam Field Trip" to Gavins Point Dam at Yankton. I went along as a dad/chaperone, trying to guide 22 of the 44 freshmen. Greene led the other 22.
Each year the freshman class tells Green they're going on a "Dam field trip." The joke never gets old. Senior valedictorian T.J. Wilcke mentioned the "Dam field trip" in his commencement address at Woodbury Central on Sunday.
Gavins Point Dam, I learned, was named for Michael Gavin, an Irish immigrant who owned land a couple of miles from where the $51 million dam was eventually built. While the site changed from his farm to make construction easier, officials decided the keep his name on the structure.
The dam itself was authorized by Congress as part of the 1944 Pick-Sloan Plan, which came about after a series of floods devastated farms, homes and communities all along the Missouri River in the early 1940s.
This dam is the last of six built on the Missouri, and the last one before the river empties into the Mississippi River at St. Louis, Mo.
"We have the smallest of the six dams on the Missouri," said Heather McDonald, a South Dakota State University student who leads tours for her summer job. "We have only three generators, but we have the most control as there are no other dams between here and the Gulf of Mexico."
Those generators provide enough electricity to light up at least 68,000 households.
Beyond flood control and power generation, the dam offers navigation support, fish and wildlife management and recreation. (That's one of Greene's quiz questions, by the way.)
Recreation was in full bloom Wednesday morning as at least a dozen boats fished near the dam, likely attempting to catch bass, walleye, catfish, paddle fish and more.
Lewis and Clark Lake, which is 28 miles long and was formed -- or impounded -- by the dam, starts at the site and measures 45 feet deep here, its deepest point. The lake, which boasts 90 miles of shoreline, welcomes 2 million visitors to the Yankton area each year.
The dam and lake contribute some $61 million to the local economy every year.
Some of this was spelled out by McDonald and fellow tour guide Laura Addison, a medical school student working here over the summer. They also took these freshman through the control area where engineers help control the dam electronically within a concrete structure that features walls 25 feet thick.
One of my favorite items was a wrench used in the building process here from 1952 to 1957. It weighs 169 pounds, if I remember. Biggest wrench I'd ever seen.
And one of the greatest grand openings took place here May 18, 1952, just over 56 years ago. A quick film at the Lewis and Clark Visitor Center just up the road shows footage and photos from the dam groundbreaking that attracted 8,000 people. Thousands would return five years later to watch crews work through the night to complete the dam's final section.
All told, it took 7 million cubic yards of earth fill to create the site.
After completing my quiz, taking in the marvel created a half-century ago by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, I came to this conclusion: The field trip was dam good.
Reach the Journal's Tim Gallagher at (712) 293-4229 or via e-mail at timgallagher@siouxcityjournal.com
Info: For information on Gavins Point Dam, call (402) 667-7873 or see www.yanktonsd.com
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Rich Kallsen wrote on May 20, 2008 8:47 PM: