?Lockkeeper?s House? to be saved

ELDON ? The ?Lockkeeper?s House? just south of Eldon in the northeast corner of Davis county along the Des Moines River is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places as of this last year.

The Lockkeeper?s House is a one- and three-quarter story limestone house about 18 feet by 36 feet, with two front doors on the long side. It faces the Des Moines River along the Old Iowaville Road.

Locally it is said the house was built for the lockkeeper who would raise and lower the water in the lock for the steamboats traveling up and down the Des Moines River, explained Jessica Strom, administrator of the American Gothic House Center in Eldon and member of the Eldon Historic Preservation Commission. It is thought the house had two doors so the lockkeeper could use one for business, while the other was a family entrance into the home, she added.

The house sat empty for many years, but in 2008 Roger Franklin donated it to the city of Eldon to be preserved. The Eldon Historic Preservation Commission is beginning work to determine how best to preserve the house and raise the necessary funds to do so.

According to the American Gothic House Center?s Web site, the first known steamboat traveled the Des Moines River in 1837, and the ?Ione? made it all the way to the Raccoon Fork at Fort Des Moines in 1843. But it was not always possible for steamboats to navigate the river, because of heavy spring rains and summer droughts.

The Des Moines River Improvement Project was supposed to solve the problems caused by weather. In 1846, the U.S. Congress passed legislation giving Iowa the right to sell sections of land on each side of the river to raise money to build a series of 28 locks and dams between the Mississippi River and the Raccoon Fork. In 1847, the first state legislature established a Board of Public Works to oversee the project.

The board awarded contracts for the first locks, dams and canals closest to the Mississippi in 1848, but little construction happened. New board members were elected, and the next year, different members were appointed. New contracts were given to new builders; still little happened.

In 1853, another contractor, Henry O?Reilly of Des Moines Navigation and Railroad Company, was hired and given four years to finish the project.

In 1855, construction started on Lock and Dam No. 10 upstream from Iowaville. The government purchased 10 acres in Davis County from Jim Jordan at $50 per acre, which was an unheard of price at the time, on which to build the lock.

Teenager Isaac Flint watched the construction and wrote about it 50 years later in the Eldon Star. According to Flint, a whole town grew up on the construction site, with hundreds of men quarrying and hauling stone, cutting timber and laying the stone walls of the lock. He wrote half of the 10 acres was covered with blocks of stone. But, despite the number of workers and the availability of stone, Flint wrote work was ?ridiculously slow.?

For the complete article, see the Wednesday, July 21, 2010, printed edition of The Fairfield Ledger.