The Rapidan Dam from a historical perspective
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- Опубликовано: 9 фев 2025
- Jessica Potter from the Blue Earth County Historical Society joined us in studio for a historical perspective on the Rapidan Dam.
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As a historian myself in New England I found this so interesting. It is also so heartbreaking to see that little white house lose its battle with the mighty River. The video of it falling however almost entirely in one piece is a testament to how well it was built and how hard it fought back. My condolences to the family who lost it and the community.
I have a little more history to share. My families history in that area. Silas Kenworthy started it all in that area with a grist mill. Silas's grandson Roy E Mendenhall worked in the construction of the Dam. The Mendenhall's house is across from the Dam store past the park. Silas Kenworthy's house is further back. Closer to where the grist mill used to be on the river. After contruction was completed Roy was employed at the Dam. On the 23rd of Nov. 1911 Roy was down in the dam sweeping up. Some how he was electrocuted and died 20 minutes or so after he was found. Roy was 23 married and had a small child. I'm praying that the Dam holds and Roy's legacy remains. The Dam store was owned for a time by George and Fern (Mendenhall) Eldredge. They lived upstairs. My Uncle spent his summers there and after a family reunion we all visited the Dam store. He proclaimed that the food, especially the pie was way better now than the old days!
Great presentation ladies, very interesting...thanks
Thanks for sharing.
Great historical information. It is important to know what that structure meant to the surrounding area when it was built! TY!
There were 7 spillway gates when the dam was built in 1910, but at some point 2 of them were sealed off with concrete. This cut the maximum flow of the dam by 29% and guaranteed eventual failure. Back in 1910 they designed and built a great dam by hand in only 1 year, but today with all our technology and machinery it would take several years to the same job and probably not last half as long. Wake up America!
and no spillway to mitigage that dam has paid for itself over history with electricity, and greedy idiot people decided not to do proper maint, just like in Oroville when the spillway was not maintained and it failed as well
We're at the stage where things that break will never be repaired.
Our very large earthen dam built by the Corps of Engineers over several years in the 50s-60s is in excellent shape. I know many people think everything was better in the olden days or their own youth, but in truth there are many construction projects that are built very well and will easily last a century or two. The whole problem is not budgeting enough for maintenance. All infrastructure projects need good upkeep. As time goes by they are faced with new challenges the original engineers didn't have to encounter, such as climate change with unusually severe weather, changes in land and water use upstream, or much busier traffic with much heavier vehicles. Certainly the road bridge by this dam was not designed to handle the eroding of the river bed and the force of the water. It will need work done when this is over. In my town we are building our third road bridge. The first bridge had no bike or people path and when a truck came along, the police had to stop traffic and make the bridge into one lane to let it cross. That bridge took the place of a ferry, walking across the ice, and a pontoon bridge. It was certainly a faster build than the present bridge. That one has two fairly narrow lanes each way and a bike path was added along the side at some point. That took longer to build and included rerouting the road on each side. The new bridge will be wider and stronger with a bike path, plus more rerouting of the road to allow for the building of the new while using the old. You might be surprised to know it takes a lot longer to build each stronger and bigger version, and that we don't build the same when new conditions evolve. Shocker, right? You'd think we would slap up the same dam or bridge each time, and much faster, but no. Our steel railroad bridge is still in use since 1910 but the clever moving span that let tall steamships through didn't outlast the steamship era. My guess is it was allowed to rust shut. It sounds like this dam was also falling into disrepair and people were discussing what to do with it. The fact that the failure was beside the dam obscured the fact that the dam wasn't in good shape.
When it was built it had more spillways that would have been enough to prevent this. Some time after it was built two of them were blocked and in the end THAT caused this
You are right, but no they blocked them off with concrete, what idiots. They should have been fixed to act as flood gates.
0:48 able to construct it in one year using unregulated explosives, non-existent safety standards, and concrete chemicals unavailable today because of environmental impact. There were also no real wildlife or environmental impact studies like they would do today. I believe there were a few people actually killed or seriously injured constructing this bridge.... so yeah kind of different from modern construction.
a fair number of construction projects even today end up with dead workers.
I always shake my head at morons who criticize the past for not being the present
One man was killed. He fell 50 feet to his death. He wrote his name on the inside of the dam shortly before he died.
For the time, that's an excellent safety record.
@@gruntforever7437 These people are not "morons" and you should be ashamed at yourself for name calling. Compare the number of lives lost during the building of the Hoover dam to the much smaller number of lives lost building the Golden Gate Bridge. Both high-risk projects. The main difference: The project manager on the Golden Gate Bridge project was determined to take all reasonable precautions to ensure worker safety. The project manager on the Hoover Dam was determined to make a name for himself by finishing ahead of schedule and under budget. Worker health and safety were not on his list of priorities, and it showed. My point being that the high loss of life on projects in the "good old days" often had less to do with lack of knowledge and more to do with the lack of morals on the part of those in charge of the projects.
About 45 years ago I helped build a novel hydroelectric plant up in Yosemite National Park! Novel because we reuse the same water! There was a lake at 11000 ft and another lake at 5500. The water ran down in the daytime to spin the turbines, at night it was pumped back up with the unused energy out of the fossil fuel plants! You can't shut them off at night, they create electricity and nobody's using it! Far as I know it is still operational today!!
Hardly a novel idea. It's known as "pumped storage" hydroelectric generation and there are a number of dams around the world that use this technology.
@@evanstauffer4470 If you understand how long ago I was talking about you'll understand why I was so naive at the time!
@@evanstauffer4470 Which was the first to use that idea, though? How far back does it go?
Jessica, can you give us the whole dam story?
Looks like the actual dam did not fail. The driftwood slowed the water flow.
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Have a damn's purpose is to control the flow of water downstream then it failed. It wasn't destroyed but it's failed its purpose
@@nnonotnow From an engineering definition, the dam did not fail - there was no structural failure. This is purely a hydroelectric dam, not designed for flood control. If the spillway gates had not partially plugged with debris, and if two gates had not been permanently blocked, all the runoff would most likely have passed safely through the spillway gates as intended.
It's lovely to be all nostalgic about the dam but it either needs to be entirely removed and replaced, or just removed. Otherwise the banks will continue to erode.
1 year construction. Never build a Rapid Dam. They don't come with emergency spillways or debris catching log booms.
How one day later changes everything... They'll be lucky if they don't lose the store too.
So much old infrastructure from nuclear power, dams, bridges, etc., that need replacing vs bandaid fixing.
Ain't no Band-Aid going to fix that. But they can build a nice brand new hydroelectric plant! At 100 years old it may not even have been operational anymore! The turbines may have worn out!
I can understand the historical value of the Dam but it's time to replenish our infrastructure. That woman is delusional
This is a good example of government doing nothing till it's way to late to do anything
It's history now😂😂😂
Rapidan Lake is about done.
They will leave a 50-75 ft section up, demo and remove the rest, place a plaque and some park benches like they normally do…
Is there not a single Midwestern woman weighing under 230? What is going on here? They should all be embarrassed to go on TV looking like that.
Please upload a photo so we can comment on your appearance. Thanks in advance
Ever since the FDA eliminated trans fats and msg from your favorite snack or food it doesn't taste good anymore and makes you feel like shit go figure
Assuming that you're a doctor, fitness coach or other expert, feel free to send us some weight loss tips, we'd love to feature you! Not sure how much it'll help though since my current weight is 155 and I lift heavy 3x per week. Thanks for watching!
@@nnonotnow Well, It's a well known fact that trolls living in their parents' basement are all Adonis or Venus-like in their beauty. LOL
Remember, it was built by the lowest bidder.
And yet the Dam still stands.
@@Fusion_4000 I guess we can blame Noah for the flood.
@@Fusion_4000 Your right, nothing. my apologies.