Wicket Locks and Dams
Photos & Stories
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The first Federal improvements for navigation on the Ohio River came in 1824 with the removal of snags and sandbars. These measures were effective, but they were only temporary—new sandbars would appear after every flood. They also provided no relief against low water, which stopped navigation almost every year. The construction of a dam with a stable pool and a lock bypassing the dam would have ended problems caused by low water, but the shippers who needed the full width of the river for maneuvering were opposed to a dam.
A compromise solution was a movable dam that could be raised in times of low water to create a pool and lowered when the flow was adequate for navigation. The dams finally built had a series of Chanoine wickets, invented by Frenchman Jacques Chanoine, extending across the river. A system of 50 movable dams was built on the Ohio River between 1879 and 1929, making the Ohio navigable for its entire length at all times.
Each dam actually consists of a row of 300 or more little dams, individually hinged to a foundation on the river bottom. The wickets are constructed of heavy timber about 4 feet wide and up to 20 feet long. Raising or lowering the wickets is done by a crew on a maneuver boat that moves along the upstream face of the dam. A bar is connected to the back of each wicket with the free end riding in a groove in the foundation. To raise them, a grapple hooks a wicket and pulls it from the bed of the river. The bar slides up the groove to a niche, where it catches and supports the wicket upright against the flow of the river.
The advent of the more powerful diesel tow-boat after World War II greatly increased the size of the tows operating on the Ohio River. The tows were longer than the 600-foot locks and had to be broken into two segments for locking, more than doubling the time necessary for a lockage. A modernization program was begun on the Ohio in the 1950s to replace the old dams and the undersized locks with higher dams and longer locks, making the locking operation faster and less frequent. By 1977, all but the lowest four wicket dams had been replaced. It was at these old wooden dams that ice during the winter of '77 threatened structural damage.
Wicket Folk
Left to Right Seated:
Eddie Nunn, Wicket Lock and Dam 50 & Smithland Locks and Dam;
Carl Ball, Wicket Lock and Dam 45 & Cannelton Locks and Dam;
Harvey R. Morton, Wicket Lock and Dam 45 & Uniontown Locks & Dam.
Left to right Standing:
James (Herschel) Belt, Wicket Lock and Dam 45, Wicket Lock and Dam 50 and Smithland Locks & Dam;
Tom Diaz, Wicket Lock and Dam 50 & Smithland Locks and Dam
Lawrence “Mac” McClellan (Left) - Wicket Lock and Dam
51 & Smithland Locks & Dam
I. W. ("Dub") Cook (Right) - Wicket Lock and Dam 50, Wicket
Lock & Dam 52 & Smithland Locks & Dam
Photos
Lock and Dam 2007 Christmas
Reunion at Newburgh Locks and Dam
Tom's Lock and Dam Stories
Tom's Lock and Dam Ice Photos
Lock and Dam 50 Highwater Photo
Lock and Dam 52 Photos and Stories
Weston
Photos and Stories by Bonnie Gass
A Time to Dredge
