254 | HISTORY |
March 1, 1851. Contracts were also made for nine additional dams and locks. The estimated cost of the first three dams, four locks and work in the river between them, was $201,633. It was estimated that thirteen locks and dams would be required to render the river navigable to Ottumwa, the cost of which was estimated at $477,357.
General Curtis was of the opinion that when the system was completed to the Raccoon Fork, freight could be carried from St. Louis via Keokuk and the Des Moines River, and thence by wagon to Council Bluffs, at a saving of nine-two cents per hundred pounds over the cost by steamer up the Missouri River. He further says:
Such were the expectations entertained by the people of Iowa at this time, of the importance and feasibility of the Des Moines River improvements inaugurated. General Curtis was probably the ablest civil engineer in the West. He had been engaged in a somewhat similar work on the Muskingum River, was familiar with the general system of internal improvements of the country and his opinion of this enterprise had great influence with Iowa people. He even expressed the belief, in his enthusiastic report, that the making the Des Moines River navigable to the Raccoon Fork could be accomplished at less than half the cost per mile of a good railroad, and he adds: