Bagnell Dam, It Almost Never Happened
At 5:00 clock in the morning, the restless jostling under the old log house floor was loud and annoying. Every bump on the floor joists below was followed by grunts and squeals. Unfortunately, the old farmer who rented sleeping space to the construction workers inside the house also kept his hogs under the house.
All night long the hogs competed for a place to lie down, oblivious to the fact there were very tired men on the floor just above them. In today’s terms, it would be a bit like an all-night party in an adjacent condo. It’s interesting to note that although the old log house is long gone, the location later became known as Duckhead Point, a beautiful property owned today by Central Bancompany.
In the early morning hours, the old log house was drafty and cold. With the noisy residents below, one could say that living conditions were not exactly five-star quality. Lloyd Slone had just celebrated his 18th birthday and it was tough to get a good night’s sleep, or any sleep at all for that matter. He and his father Elmer were two of the nearly 20,000 construction workers hired to build the new dam on the Osage River.
The winter of 1930 was exceptionally cold, and the river was frozen over so solidly that they could easily cross with their horses. Their job at this time was removing the huge steel sheet pilings brought up the Osage River by the steamboats, and dragging them by horsepower from the port at Bagnell, four miles up river to the job site. These sheet pilings would be used to build the cofferdams, which were temporary dams that would keep the Osage River out of the low-lying construction areas. Pay was great; they received $4 a day for the man, and $4 a day for the horses, and you can bet the horse never saw his four bucks!
Unbeknownst to Lloyd, the entire project was nearly scrapped before it barely got off the ground. Interestingly, the story began the year Lloyd was born.
It was 1912. The electric refrigerator was on the drawing board soon to be put on the market, and Ford Motor company was making plans for the world’s first moving auto assembly line for its new “Model-T.” By any standard, the world was changing fast, and electricity was a growing commodity. New ideas for electrical devices were everywhere. In the midst of this explosion of ideas, a Kansas City lawyer named Ralph W. Street had a dream of building a dam across the Osage River to generate electricity. He reasoned that with so many new uses for electricity there would be a good market for electric production. Little did he realize how exactly “on the money” he was. However, Street was upstaged by W.R. Banks of Lamar, Mo., who applied for a preliminary permit after passage of the Federal Water Power Act in 1920. Banks wanted to build a diversion dam across the Osage River near the mouth of the Niangua River. Fortunately for Street, and for us, in July 1923 Banks’ permit was cancelled and Street went back to work. Walter Cravens, who provided initial funding for the early work, joined him that fall and the project planning began. Dr. E.B. Branson, head of the Department of Geology from the University of Missouri, was hired to perform a geological study of the reservoir.
On a cold, rainy morning in February 1924, Street and Branson arrived at the town of Bagnell to begin fieldwork. A local man, Homer Houston, offered limousine service with his team of horses and an old wagon. On that day, the first field trip of the geological party was made. Shortly thereafter, Burns and McDonnell Engineering Company was hired to make a preliminary mapping survey of the reservoir area, and later employed to consider several potential sites for the dam.
An application for a preliminary permit was made by Cravens to the Federal Power Commission. The permit was finally issued to him in November 1924. At the same time, the Missouri Hydro Electric Power Company was formed and received a certificate of incorporation by the State of Missouri. The new hydro company was authorized to perform initial development work.
In 1925, with the Burns and McDonnell reservoir area mapping work completed, the project would have land in four Missouri counties. A total of 50,000 acres of land was put under option. This was a critical step in the project because the banks providing financing were concerned about the effect of land prices on the total project cost. The bankers accepted the engineering estimates of the cost of building the structure, but they required either purchase of the land or legal options to buy it.
As momentum for the project grew, a gauging station was installed on the Osage River to measure stream flow, and bedrock core drilling was done to prove that the dam site selected was on a solid rock foundation. Charles B. Hawley Engineering Company was hired to design the dam and powerhouse, as well as provide construction cost estimates. This was a step required by bankers prior to making the initial much needed loans for the project to continue.
The first major financing was sought for $600,000. Guy Houston of the Guy Houston Company assured Street and Cravens that he was organizing a banking group to finance the project. He agreed to advance the money to cover the cost of the construction camp, railroad and highways which needed to be built before the actual construction could begin.
Financial problems About mid-December of 1925, during a governmental investigation of the Joint Stock Land Bank, Houston refused to provide the money he had promised. There were $250,000 in unpaid bills to more than 100 creditors, and the job was shut down. Bankers who had promised financial backing disappeared. The project faced certain bankruptcy unless financing could be found somewhere else. Ralph Street’s dream was nearly dead. Could he convince all of those people to wait for their money? Creditors wanted to see proof that their money had been used wisely, but unfortunately there was not much tangible construction to show for it. The $600,000 that had been expended to date had been spent on core drillings, surveys, engineering studies, highway construction and a railroad. Could the project be held together until more financing could be found?
Street quickly left his field duties at the construction site to visit principal creditors as well as to seek loans to cover the costs. He first went to Chicago, then New York, spending the next 14 months attempting to finance the project. He spent six weeks to eight months with each financial group trying to convince the executives that the project was both economically justified and sound from an engineering standpoint.
The final hurdle was convincing the lawyers that the legal matters were in order and permits for construction had all been properly obtained. Finally, in each case, negotiations ended because it was not possible to secure a contract for enough electrical power to satisfy the bankers. Most negotiations were based on selling power to Kansas City, which didn’t need enough electricity at the time to make the project feasible.
Finally, a Loan After months of failed negotiations, Ralph Street finally secured a loan in April 1927 for $75,000 to reduce the indebtedness. This money was distributed pro rata to the general creditors, and a financial crisis was barely averted.
A.L. Snyder, vice president of Stone and Webster, had just secured major electrical power contracts for another utility and agreed to take on the task of securing power contracts. After all, what good was it to build a dam to make electricity if you couldn’t sell it? These contracts would make the Osage River Hydro-Electric Development an accomplished fact.
Additionally, Stone and Webster, Inc., performed a thorough engineering study and re-designed the project to meet the needs of a new partner, Union Electric Light and Power Company of St. Louis. Snyder negotiated a significant contract for electrical energy with the St. Joseph Lead Company, which was possibly the largest single contract for electrical energy at that time. Soon to follow was the announcement that Union Electric Light and Power Company would take over the Osage River Hydro-Electric Project. Application was made to the Missouri Public Service Commission for approval of the sale, and after a lengthy hearing, approval was received. On July 29, 1929, the actual transfer of the properties was finalized and all creditors of the Missouri Hydro Electric Company received payment in full at 6 percent interest.
Things moved quickly from there, and work began about a week later on Aug. 6, 1929. Amazingly, commercial operation of the completed dam began on Oct. 16, 1931, barely two years after the
job began.
So there it is. Ralph Street conceived the idea of building a dam on the Osage River the same year Lloyd Slone was born. It was through Street’s perseverance under near bankruptcy, failed negotiations and opposition that Lloyd had a job 18 years later. Street’s steadfast pursuit of his dream of building a dam also created jobs for more than 20,000 workers in central Missouri during the great depression, and created a beautiful Lake that we still enjoy today.
Oh, yes: The dam is still making clean, green electricity to light our homes and power our businesses. And to think: it almost never happened. Thanks, Ralph!
Author’s note: The author gratefully acknowledges the writings of William Turner, Union Electric retiree, for his historical summary of the construction of Bagnell Dam. I am also grateful for a lifetime of stories told to me by my uncle, Lloyd Slone.
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[...] name, so they simply used the name of the closest town, Bagnell, MO. So, there you have it. Bagnell Dam got its name because a farmer allowed the railroad to cross his land and insisted that the railroad [...]