Page 15 - BuildingJob inIowa

the delay, WPA funding to complete the dam was obtained This dam is identified on its WPA project card as a “rock fill
in October 1935, and the dam was completed on November dam.” The 1936 photograph of the dam, however, appears
11, seventeen months after construction began.39 to show its downstream slope constructed of concrete, mak-
ing it unclear exactly where rock was used in the dam and
The Quasqueton Dam remains in place, but it was covered where concrete was used. The amount approved by the WPA
in 2014 by broken concrete and rock arranged in a series of for completing the Coggon Dam was almost $27,000, more
downstream arcs to create a rock rapids. This was done to than was typically requested for entire New Deal dam proj-
aid fish passage and to prevent dangerous undertows.40 ects in the Wapsipinicon watershed, and much more than
the $3,020 approved for the completion of the Quasqueton
Coggon Dam (site of present Buffalo Dam. The reason for the large amount requested is not pres-
ently known.43
Creek Park Dam)
Frederika Dam
The New Deal dam in Coggon, located in northeastern Linn
County, was replaced in 1967 by the current dam, known as Although the Frederika Dam is not technically a New Deal
the Buffalo Creek Park Dam.41 The New Deal dam was built dam, it was not for lack of trying. The town of Frederika
in order to restore Manhattan Lake in Coggon. Construction sought funding from different New Deal programs, and was
began in September 1934 with labor supplied by FERA. Al- even granted WPA funding in 1935. But for various reasons,
though the date of completion was not discovered, it was the dam was never completed as a federal project. It was
originally estimated that the dam would take four months to eventually built in 1940, funded entirely by the state of Iowa
construct, suggesting an expected completion date in early and a local bond issue. For this reason, the Frederika Dam is
1935. However, just as with the FERA dam in Quasqueton, included here as an “honorary” New Deal dam.
the construction of the Coggon Dam took considerably lon-
ger than originally estimated. One problem was a disagree- An earlier dam in Frederika was damaged in the spring of
ment between the state and Linn County regarding which of 1935. For some time afterwards, it appeared certain that the
the two would pay the $700 cost for materials. It was not dam would be rebuilt as a federal project. In June 1935, it
until December 1934 that the state agreed to absorb the ex- was proposed to rebuild the dam using Public Works Admin-
pense. But other delays seem to have occurred, since again, istration (PWA) funds. Records indicate that John E. Flana-
the completion of the Coggon Dam became a WPA project in gan, relief engineer, was in the process of drawing up plans
the fall of 1935.42 The dam was probably completed in 1936, in September. Local sponsors planned to seek a PWA grant
since a photograph of it taken in February 1936 appears to for 45 percent of the project costs.44 Either the references to
show it uncompleted (see photograph below). the PWA were mistaken, or the dam’s proponents decided

Photograph of Coggon Dam, 1936 (from Special Collections Department, Iowa State University Library). 13
Building Jobs in Iowa—New Deal Dams of the Wapsipinicon River Watershed in Northeast Iowa