Overview
The Yamhill River lock and dam was completed in 1900. It was built near Lafayette, Oregon, to allow better river transport on the Yamhill River from Dayton, to McMinnville, Oregon. While the Corps of Engineers had recommended against construction of the lock, it was built anyway, largely as a result of political effort by the backers of the project. For almost forty years prior to the lock construction there had been efforts made to construct a lock and dam on the Yamhill River. The lock and dam are also representative of the results of local pressure for expenditure of funds from the national government for works of a local nature.
Location
The lock was (and is) located about one mile downriver from the town of Lafayette and about five miles upriver from the confluence of the Yamhill and the Willamette Rivers. downriver to the lock site, over which the river fell nine feet. In 1874, the Yamhill was examined by the engineering department of the U.S. army, which found that the river would vary from a shallow chain of pools in the summer to a "river of great power and strength" whose waterlines along the banks showed a rise, sometimes, of over during winter and spring floods.
Steam navigation to McMinnville before the lock
Prior to the construction of the lock, small steamers were able to run to McMinnville. The very early steamers Enterprise (115 ft. )and Hoosier (50 ft; 5 tons The steamer Elk, , owned by Christopher E. Switzer, also ran on the Yamhill in the late 1850s but after a single season proved to be too large for the route. In 1871, the Willamette Transportation Company advertised steamer service to McMinnville at the rate of $3.00 per ton from Portland. Toledo appears to have been the first steamer to reach McMinnville in 14 years.
Early lock proposals
Starting even before Oregon became a state, there were five local efforts to build a lock or locks on the Yamhill river. The State Rights Democrat, then a partisan newspaper, blamed the failure to construct the locks on Republican domination of politics in Yamhill County. The company's capital stock was stated to be $75,000. In October 1876 the Yamhill Locks and Manufacturing Company was incorporated. None of these companies were able to build, or apparently even start to build, a lock on the river.
State legislation
The Oregon state legislature passed a law in 1876 which created a "franchise" to provide for the construction of locks on the Yamhill river at Lafayette. Under the terms of the franchise, the state reserved the right to purchase the improvement at any time.
Federal legislation
A provision of the Rivers and Harbors Act, passed on July 13, 1892, required the Corps of Engineers to prepare a preliminary examination of the possibility of developing slackwater navigation from the mouth of the Yamhill River to McMinnville, by building a lock and dam at Lafayette. The same rivers and harbors act permitted $3,000 in funds to be expended to remove the snags, overhanging trees and other obstructions on the Yamhill river between Lafayette and McMinnville. With this money, these obstructions were cleared in October and November 1892. It authorized expenditure of $200,000 for navigation improvements to the Willamette River and construction of the lock on the Yamhill River. The War Department had determined not to build the lock on the Yamhill. U.S.
Representative Binger Hermann was a strong proponent of the project, claiming that increased navigation on the Yamhill would pay for the entire project within one year of its completion. Other political pressure was applied in favor of construction of the lock and dam. The lock project was also favored by Harvey W. Scott, editor of the largest newspaper in the state, the Morning Oregonian. On November 12, 1897, the Daily Capital Journal, of Salem, Oregon, reported having received a telegram from U.S. Senator George W. McBride that the lock would be built as designed by the engineering department and that the necessary appropriations would be expended by act of Congress. Also in November 1897, Brigadier General John M.
Wilson informed by letter the Yamhill County commissioners that Congress had appropriated $160,000 in addition to the previous $40,000, thus providing enough money to construct the lock and dam.
Bids solicited
On January 3, 1898, Capt. W.L. Fisk, U.S. Engineers posted a notice soliciting sealed proposals for construction of a dam and other works on the Yamhill river. Proposals would be accepted at the U.S. Engineer office in Portland, Oregon until noon, February 10, 1898. and William F. McGregor. The contract was award to the Normile concern and entered into on March 11, 1898. The contract required the project to be finished by December 31, 1898. Most of the construction would be of concrete, mixed from stone taken from within of the project.
Construction begins
On April 8, 1898, the government purchased the land for the project from its owners, O.N. and Gertrude J. Denny, for $275. On June 14, 1898, the contractors were given the notification to proceed. A labor force would start right away to build a boarding house and a scow. As of June 20, 1898, fifty men and teams were working, and the contractor expected the project to be complete before high water in the fall. On July 21, 1898 only twenty men were at work, with one hundred to be employed as soon as the preparation work was complete. By this time the contractor was hoping, rather than expecting, to finish by the fall rains. Two work gangs would be placed on the project, one by day and one by night. The work was moving as fast as possible so as to finish before severe winter weather arrived.
On Tuesday, October 3, 1899, the gates on the lock were installed and properly adjusted, the valves in place, and the miter sills (under the lock gates) fitted and finishing touches placed on the lock. Pilings had been driven on the shore end of the permanent dam, as well as for the revetment to protect the riverbank from erosion above and below the dam. The river was routed through the lock so that work on the permanent dam could be completed. Steamers were running on the river during construction. On November 13, 1899, the steamer Gypsy passed the lock at noon, then, returning after dark, at 6:13 p.m, struck the lock and dam broadside, damaging the works. Lock completion had been intended for 1899, but five freshets on the Yamhill river prevented this.
The Yamhill river stayed high later than usual, and when the fall rains came, the cofferdam was washed away, so work had to be suspended until lower water and better weather arrived in 1900.
Litigation
In February 1900, the contractors, McGregor & Normile, had sued Portland resident George Taylor, for breach of contract in supplying cement, claiming damages of $1,537.50. The allegations of the complaint were that in March 1898, Taylor contracted with McGregor & Normile to deliver to them about 7400 barrels of Jossen cement for use on the lock and dam project at a price of $2.50 per barrel. Jossen cement was a type of Portland cement manufactured in Belgium. McGregor & Normile claimed Taylor had delivered 2000 barrels, and promised them that more barrels were en route from Europe on the ocean-going steamer City of Athens. Although 6,000 barrels were shipped to Taylon on City of Athens, Taylor delivered only 1,540 barrels to McGregor & Normile, and sold the rest of the barrels to other parties.
As a result, McGregor & Nichols had to buy 2,460 barrels of cement at the increased price of $3.12.5 per barrel.
Completion
As of July 1, 1900, the lock walls, gates, valves and other equipment were complete; the timber revetments and the grading of the banks on the west side of the river were three-quarters complete, and the piling of the main dam (then still under construction) was one-third complete. Work had not yet started on the crib section of the main dam, and the revetments, embankments, and bank protection on the east side. On August 1, 1900, cofferdams were completed above and below the main dam crib section, and the river's entire flow was channeled through the lock chamber. After that work commenced on the soapstone foundation for the dam. The entire dam was completed on September 1, 1900. On September 15, 1900, the lock chamber was closed, and the river began to back up behind the dam. Four days later, on September 19, the water began spilling over the dam.
Opening of the locks
On September 21, 1900, the lock was working perfectly, filling in six and one-half minutes and emptying in three and one-half. That day Capt. Wm C. Langfitt inspected and informally opened the lock for operations. At 1:00 p.m., the government's steam launch, with Captain Langfitt at the wheel, entered the lock, with assistant engineer David B. Ogden, Mrs. Ogden, and a reporter from the Oregonian on board. was supervised by engineer Ogden.
Dimensions upon completion
The overall length of the lock was , and the distance between the gates was . The lock was wide. There was depth of water over the lock sills, so that any boat that could pass the Willamette Falls Locks could also transit the new lock on the Yamhill. The land wall was thick at its base, and thick at the top. The river wall was thick from top to bottom. The lower lock gates were , and each weighed . The upper gates measured , and weighed each. There were no valves in the upper gates. The lock chamber was filled by culverts in the lock walls measuring . The culverts were opened and closed by vertical butterfly valves. The lower gages had horizontal butterfly valves in size which were used for emptying the lock chamber. The lock floor and the lock walls rested on a poured concrete foundation four feet thick, with the lock walls rising above it. The lock floor was also thick.
The sub foundation consisted of a timber grillage placed on 700 round piles, driven feet deep. 8000 cubic yards of concrete were used for the lock and foundation. The lock had a lift of . The dam impounding the Yamhill River was long and wide at its base. The dam rose in steps, and was constructed from 100,000 board feet of timber and 1400 cubic yards of rock. The lock keeper's office was on the west side of the river on a hill above the river's high water mark. The highest water level recorded on the Yamhill River within the three years before the lock completion was , which would have risen over the lock walls. The lock keeper's residence was on the east side of the river, also located above the high water mark. A collapsible iron bridge allowed crossing the lock at any ordinary water level in the river.
Post-completion flood countermeasures
There were ten freshets on the Yamhill river from November 1900 to April 1901. The river banks next to the lock and dam turned out to be much less stable then had been planned for, and the river conditions much worse than anticipated. After a December freshet, a long portion of a riprap protected section fell into the river, and the dam was being threatened with undermining by scour. This was counteracted by depositing of rock in front of the dam and at the foot of the slope. The work was finished by November 1901. About of the slopes had been paved and rip-rapped with rock, and the dam had been extended on further on to the east back of river. On December 6, 1901, the work on the locks was reported to be finally complete and ready to withstand winter weather.
Operation from 1900 to 1902
, which would have required use of the Yamhill lock. On September 24, 1900, the steamer Bonita (later renamed Metlako), became the first steamboat to transit the lock. There were 225 lockages. Total operating time was 67 hours and 32 minutes. Total registered tons transiting the locks was 38,967. The total freight carried was 1,742 tons. Total passengers carried were 2,010. On January 6, 1902, the Oregon City Transportation Company, also known as the "Yellow Stack Line" advertised regular service, on the steamer Altona from Portland to McMinnville. Altona was scheduled to depart from Portland to McMinnville at 7:00 a.m. every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, from the company's dock at the foot of Taylor Street in Portland.
The sternwheel steamer Altona which had just resumed the run from Portland to McMinnville after a hiatus of about three weeks, was forced to proceed no further than Dayton on the Yamhill River. The previous suspension of service by Altona had been due to lack of business. With no steamer service, the merchants of Dayton and McMinnville began considering building their own steamer. Captain Graham, of the Oregon City Transportation Company, the owner of Altona, conferred with the merchants and explained his position. The merchants agreed that they would provide sufficient business and Captain Graham agreed to keep Altona on the McMinnville run. During fiscal year 1902, there were 246 lockages transiting 48,240 registered tonnage of vessels, carrying 3,455 tons of freight, including 571 tons of sand and gravel shipped in to repair the locks.
The railroads lowered their rates to compete, and kept most of the shipping business. In 1902, despite the agreement of the merchants to patronize the steamers, the Oregon City Transportation Company withdrew their steamers permanently from service above Dayton. This was said by the company to have been because the difficulties in predicting when the lock would be open during the winter months made it impossible to build up business. Although efforts were made later to establish steamboat service to McMinnville, this withdrawal by the Oregon City Transportation Company marked the end of regular commercial steamboat use of the lock, even though it was to help establish that service that the lock had been built and completed just two years before.
Newspapers criticize project as waste of money
In late May 1903, the government had several men and teams working that the locks, performing grading, sowing grass seed and performing other improvements. By this time, the lack of use of the lock had become apparent. Noting this, the editor of the Hillsboro Independent added the comment: "But you wanted the locks, did you not?" Again, the Hillsboro Independent commented sarcastically: "The improvement seems not to have revolutionized the transportation of freight out of Yamhill county." According to steamboat men, possibly only a single steamer had passed through the locks to that point in 1903. Commenting, the Oregon City Courier said the locks were "useless to navigation, and according to these same steamboat men, at high water the locks are flooded and an obstruction. There is practically no navigation of the Yamhill river above Dayton.
The $93,000 spend by Uncle Sam — to keep republican votes in line it seems — was worse than wasted. The railroad is preferred to the tortuous Yamhill." In October, 1910, the Morning Oregonian, once a proponent of the project, criticized the lock and dam for not having brought navigability to the Yamhill river.
Contractor attempts to recover excess costs
In 1905, a bill was introduced in the Congress by Sen. Charles W. Fulton, to pay the general contractors (Simon Normile, John F. Fastabend, and William F. McGregor) $30,000, reportedly for "losses sustained by the delay of the government in securing title to a site for the Yamhill locks." On January 5, 1905 the senate referred the matter to the Court of Claims. The claim involved more than delay, as the chief issue was whether the United States should have to pay, under the terms of the contract, for extra work associated with the construction of temporary diversion works through the lock chamber while the adjacent dam was under construction. The contractors won in the Court of Claims, but the government appealed to the United States States Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court, in an opinion by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., reversed the court of claims, ruling for the government, and finding that the extra cost and expense was chargeable to the contractor, as the government had only directed the general result of what was to be attained by the contract and leaving the details up to the contractors as to how to perform the work.
Design failure
After 1902, the official reports of the Corps of Engineers consistently emphasized that no commercial steamers were regularly using the lock. From 1902 to 1914 the locks were used mostly by passengers in launches and by boats towing rafts. In 1903, several proposals were made to address the issue, but they were rejected as being impractical, too expensive, or both.
1903 to 1910
On December 31, 1902, heavy rains caused the Yamhill River to rise very fast, and by that date the water was over the lock walls. In late January 1903, the Willamette River flooded, backing water up to the locks, where the water measured above zero on the gauge. On January 26, 1903, the Yamhill river was pouring deep over the lock walls, and it was reported to be still rising. The highest water recorded in fiscal year 1905 was on December 31, 1904, when the river rose above the lock walls. No damage was sustained by the lock, dam, or the adjacent slopes. Water again was flowing over the lock walls. This was the first time in about five years that a steamboat had operated above the lock. Reportedly a good cargo was carried on the initial trip. A few days before, Leona had been brought up to McMinnville under Captain Turper.
This scouting trip had been difficult because of the snags and floating logs in the river. The government snag boat was expected to soon clear these obstructions. As a result, Leona was forced to suspend operations to McMinnville. The locks were closed 74 days, from September 23, 1908, to March 24, 1909, because of high water. The cost of operating the locks during FY 1909 was $1,188.66.
1911 to 1920
During fiscal year (FY) 1913, the locks were operated 91 times and closed 65 days because of high water. The cost to maintain the locks in FY 1913 was $1,300.28. The steamer Woodland returned to Portland on December 5, 1916, having failed to proceed beyond Dayton. New lock gates were installed in the summer of 1919. There had been no previous replacement of the gates since the locks were opened. Replacement work began on July 11, 1919. The new gates were built at Oregon City. The original gates had been built of Douglas fir. On August 10, 1919, work was complete on the replacement gates. In July 1924, the Greyhound Transportation Company proposed placing a small steamer on the Yamhill river that, if business warranted, would use the lock to serve on the stretch to McMinnville.
This steamer would be only about in length, too small to be legally required to have a crew of more than two men. With no more than two men on board, it could save the expense of additional crew and be more likely to earn a profit.
1921 to 1930
As of July 5, 1925, it had been a year since a boat had passed through the locks. The gates had to be opened once a week so that the machinery could be reported in good condition. There was not much else for the lock keeper to do except mow the lawn and water the plants at the small park which the government had placed at the locks.
Surge in log transports
In the 1930s a series of forest fires, known as the Tillamook Burn greatly increased the amount of salvaged logs shipped down the Yamhill River through the lock. In 1941, 99,000 tons of logs, with attendant small tugs, were transited through the lock. In 1943, 101,981 tons of logs were brought through the locks, the highest volume ever, falling off to 79,895 tons in 1946.
Operations terminated
From FY 1944 to FY 1953, tonnage passing through the lock declined from 119,006 to 32,986. Most of this tonnage consisted of log rafts for a single company. In July 1953, the Army Corps of Engineers removed the local lock master and decided only to open the locks upon 24 hours prior notice to the lock master at Willamette Falls Locks in West Linn, Oregon. All commercial boat service through the lock had stopped many years before. After the lock was shut down, a large log drifting down the river floated over the top of the lock, striking the lock machinery, effectively putting the lock permanently out of operation.
Transfer to Yamhill County
In 1956, under a bill sponsored by U.S. Representative A. Walter Norblad, Congress authorized transfer of the lock and dam to Yamhill County. The bill, which authorized the transfer of 28 federal locks and dams which had gone out of service, had been requested by the Corps of Engineers. The bill authorized the Corps to transfer the property to state, county or other groups. The state park superintendent, C.H. Armstrong, said that the park would go to the county. Yamhill County Commissioner Charles R. Newman said the county was only interested in the eight-acre park, and not the lock, and had set up a park commission to manage it. Newman said that farm owners had expressed interest in the dam for irrigation purposes. The last vessels to transit the lock were five pleasure boats which had come up the Willamette and the Yamhill rivers specially to use the lock on the closing day.
Post-closure disposition
The Corps of Engineers had maintained the property next to the lock and dam as a park for a number of years. By this time, the lock gates had broken out, but the dam still held water for about 20 farmers. After three years of negotiations and disputes about whether the dam should be preserved for irrigation purposes, or destroyed to facilitate the spawning runs of salmon, on September 18, 1963, by order of the state fish commission, the dam was destroyed by the use of explosives.
Placed on the National Register of Historic Places
On June 21, 1991, the lock and dam were placed on the National Register of Historic Places. At that time, much of the original structure remained. Most prominently the lock walls remained in place. About halfway along the east side of the water wall, runs over a jumble of stones, falling about , which marks where the dam once stood. At low water pilings and remains of wooden revetments were visible. Parts of the lock gates still lay on the lock floor just above the lower lock sill. The original concrete walkway along the top of the east bank slope still remained, and offered a good view of the lock. The lock keeper's house, on the east side of the river, still existed in 1991, but was not included in the proposal for registration, as it was in private ownership and the property holders did not wish it to be included.
A county park and picnic area had been established on the grounds and was in use in 1991. This did not detract from the overall historicity of the location.
Archival resources
Plans and drawings for the lock, prepared by the Corps of Engineers, are now in the collection of the Oregon Historical Society.
Pacific Northwest Stream Survey, Oregon State University
* Upper lock gates, Yamhill River Lock, September 25, 1940 * Spillway and fish ladder, Yamhill River dam, with lock wall in background, September 1940 * Fish ladder at Yamhill River dam, September 26, 1940 * Fish ladder without water, Yamhill River dam, August 23, 1940