Bagnell Dam

Bagnell Dam impounds the Osage River in Missouri, creating the Lake of the Ozarks. The 148-foot (45 m) tall concrete gravity dam was built by the Union Electric company, now part of Ameren, for the purpose of hydroelectric power generation as its Osage Powerplant. It is 2543 feet long, including a 520 foot long spillway and a 511 foot long power station. The facility with eight generators has a maximum capacity of 215 megawatts.

Construction started on the dam in 1929 and was completed in 1931. The resulting reservoir, the Lake of the Ozarks, has a surface area of 55,000 acres (223 km²), over 1150 miles of shoreline (1850 km), and stretches 92 miles from end to end (148 km). At the time of construction it was one of the largest man-made lakes in the world and the largest in the United States.

The stock market crash of 1929 which precipitated the Great Depression occurred just months after construction began on Bagnell Dam. The project employed thousands of laborers, providing a large economic boost to the rural area around the dam, and to the state as a whole, at a time when jobs were scarce.

Construction of the dam allowed for thirteen floodgates, as the original design called for. However, only twelve floodgates were installed, and the thirteenth spillway opening is walled shut with concrete. The engineers calculated that twelve floodgates provided a large enough margin of safety, and Union Electric officials reportedly did not want to jinx the dam with the unlucky number 13.

References

• "Osage Power Plant." Ameren. Accessed on February 25, 2005.
• "Watershed, Niangua River, Hydrology Chapter." Missouri Department of Conservation's Missouri's Rivers and Their Watersheads Homepage. Accessed on February 25, 2005.
• "Bagnell Dam." The Official Lake of The Ozarks Web Site. Accessed on February 25, 2005.
• "Floodgate 13." The Lake of the Ozarks Area History Pages. Accessed on February 25, 2005.