It’s hard to imagine that nearly 100 years ago, very little of this was here. No highways, no shopping malls, no restaurants. There were no million-dollar homes, no flashy off-shore boats nor swim-up bars. There was no “Strip,” no dam, no lake. Just rolling hills, homesteads, scattered farms, forests and sparsely populated hamlets and towns. But… there was a river.
WHERE THERE IS WATER, THERE IS LIFE… BEFORE THE FLOOD
The Osage River stretches for nearly 500 miles, beginning in eastern Kansas and running easterly across the center of the state where it feeds into the greater Missouri River near Jefferson City. For thousands of years, the sprawling hills and valleys surrounding this river have been inhabited by humans, their lives centered around the river. It provided fish and drew a variety of wildlife to its banks. The river supplied water for cooking and washing, and annual floods left fertile ground for agriculture. The Osage River was the center of activity and the native inhabitants and future American and European settlers built their lives around its flowing water. By the end of the 1880s, many colonies and towns would be founded, schools and churches erected and lives lived. But, as with many things, that would all soon dramatically change with a simple idea.
HATCHING A DAM PLAN
Around the turn of the 20th century, the idea of “putting a lazy river to work” became quite fashionable after the discovery of hydroelectric power. Dams of various sizes began popping up, first in England and then America, in order to keep up with the electrification of civilization.
But it was a Kansas Citian by the name of Ralph W. Street that first proposed harnessing the enormous amount of water in Missouri for the production of electrical power. Street formed the Missouri Hydro-Electric Power Company in 1924 and construction began to dam the Osage River near the town of Bagnell, but soon halted due to financial difficulties. Determined to see his idea to fruition, Street sold his company, his plans for the dam and the land he’d bought to Union Electric Light and Power Company. The Federal government gave their seal of approval on the sale on July 27, 1929. Construction of the Bagnell Dam would began a mere 10 days later.
CONSTRUCTION BEGINS
Site work on “The Great Osage River Project” began on August 6, 1929. Now, make no mistake – this was no small undertaking; it was a massive project for its time. The dam was to be a half-mile long, 26 feet wide and reaching 148 feet above bedrock (roughly the height of a 12-story building). The total price tag was to be $30 million ($660 million today). But that’s just part of it…
Nearly 60,000 acres of land had to be purchased and emptied, and about 30,000 acres cleared of trees and brush for the reservoir. Towns had to be moved. Graves and cemeteries dug up and bodies reinterned. They had to build a small city designed to accommodate 1,200 workers and 73 families. Dormitories and mess halls were the first built, followed by a commissary, hospital, a concrete plant, miles of roads, and even a jail for the rowdy misbehavers. Additionally, they had to extend the railroad 15 miles from Eldon to the town of Bagnell and then to the dam site, and build 14 miles of railroad yard. They had to build a sand, gravel and concrete mixing plant. And, then they had to construct the massive dam and power house.
HARD LABOR
Just four months after construction began, the stock market crashed, followed by the many lean years of the Great Depression. But business was booming at the dam. News of the gigantic undertaking in the Osage River Valley spread quickly and created a gold rush as thousands of prospective employees began pouring into the area. They came by foot, on horseback, floating down the river, piled high in trucks, and a few in automobiles. While many struggled and starved during the Depression, the Great Osage River Project created nearly 10,000 new jobs. Workers came from every state and nine foreign countries. The work was arduous and daunting, mostly done by hand or with horses. Shifts ranged from nine to 12 hours, seven days per week, and even 24 hours per day when it came to pouring concrete for the dam. But the pay was decent at $0.35 to $1.25 per hour, considering what the rest of the country was going through. By the time the dam was complete, more than 20,500 people worked on the project during the two-year span, with more than 4,600 craftsmen and laborers working at one point in time.
In all, the hands that worked on the Great Osage River Project moved one million cubic yards of earth and rock. They poured enough concrete to build an 18-foot wide highway from St. Louis to Topeka, Kansas. They used enough carloads of construction material to fill a freight train stretching from St. Louis to Tulsa, Oklahoma. And, they also made it possible to power over 42,000 homes around the Lake of the Ozarks, St. Louis and eastern Missouri.
THE EARLY DAYS OF THE LAKE
By February 1931, a mere 16 months after construction started, the Lake of the Ozarks began to fill. By May 20, the lake reached spillway crest elevation, and on May 30, sisters Oma and Noma DeGraffenreid drove their 1924 Chevrolet coach car over the Bagnell Dam, ushering in the Lake’s future as a vacation destination.
Shortly after the completion of the dam and the creation of the Lake of the Ozarks, as word continued to spread about the new wonderful waterside retreat in central Missouri, many hotels, motels, cabins, restaurants and businesses began popping up along Bagnell Dam Boulevard creating the Lake’s original tourist location: The Bagnell Dam Strip.
The Lake of the Ozarks would become a household name not just around the state but the rest of the country. Thousands of visitors would flock to the Lake each summer to fish, swim, waterski and lounge by the lapping water of the Lake. Although the landscape and boats now look very different, it feels like not much else has changed.
REMNANTS REMAIN… VISIT WILLMORE LODGE
The story of the Lake’s creation lives on at Willmore Lodge in Lake Ozark, just up the road from the Bagnell Dam. Built in 1930, the Adirondack-style lodge was built in 1930 as Union Electric's main administrative offices and entertainment facility throughout the construction of the dam during the height of the Great Depression.
The 6,500 square foot floor plan contained twenty-nine rooms. The building was constructed from Western white pine logs, brought into the area by rail from Pacific Northwestern United States logging companies. The structure was cut and assembled in Oregon, then marked, disassembled, and transported by train to Missouri. It was finally reassembled at the present site using only square wooden pegs and overlapping corner saddle notching to hold it together. Stone for the patios and fireplace were hauled from local area quarries. The building was reassembled and completed in about three months at an approximate cost of $135,000.
The Lodge would contain all of the modern conveniences. The two story living area and dining room had an oil burning furnace with a 1930 state-of-the-art air cooling machine, a kitchen, servant quarters, a bar with an ice making machine, and an annunciator with call buttons in each room to request service. The five guest rooms had private baths and were named after the towns that were relocated or flooded by the rising waters: Linn Creek, Zebra, Passover, Arnolds Mills, and Nonsuch.
Today, the two-story log structure houses the Lake Area Chamber of Commerce and the Bagnell Dam Museum. The museum features exhibits about life before Bagnell Dam, from the Native American tribes that first inhabited the area to the early planning stages and erection of Bagnell Dam, the filling of Lake of the Ozarks and the early days of this outdoor recreation haven.
SIDEBAR 1:
BAGNELL DAM: BY THE NUMBERS
SIDEBAR 2: TOWNS UNDER WATER
Before the lake could be filled, the reservoir had to be cleared. That required cutting timber, but it also meant many farms, buildings and entire towns would have to be demolished or moved. Communities that once stood where Lake of the Ozarks now stands:
