Lock and Dam No. 2
The Meeker Island Lock and Dam c. 1910
LocationMinneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota
Built1899–1907
ArchitectU.S. Army Corps of Engineers
NRHP reference No.03000522[1]
Added to NRHPJune 13, 2003

The Meeker Island Lock and Dam (originally known as Lock and Dam No. 2) was the first lock and dam facility built on the Upper Mississippi River. Meeker Island was named after its owner Judge Bradley B. Meeker. Meeker County was named after him also. After a construction period lasting eight years, the site was only in operation for five years from 1907 to 1912 when the growing interest in hydroelectric power led to design and construction of today's Lock and Dam No. 1 a few miles downriver.[2] It was realized that the new dam could take over the function provided by this first site and another small dam a short distance downriver.

The remains as viewed from above in 2020

Lock and Dam No. 1 opened in 1917, and a hydroelectric plant was added there in the 1920s to power the Ford Motor Company's Twin Cities Assembly Plant. The Meeker Island dam was demolished, although some ruins of the lock remain. Tops of the old lock walls become visible during low water periods on the river. It is located in the Desnoyer Park neighborhood, north of the Lake Street-Marshall Bridge connecting Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Ruins of the Meeker Island Lock as seen from the river

The Meeker Island Lock and Dam ruins were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.

Each year, National Park Service historian Dr. John Anfinson and the Friends of the Mississippi River lead a tour of the lock and dam ruins.

In 2005 a $380,000 restoration project began to create a public park near the dam. It was finished in 2007.[3]

The historic dam site and off-leash dog park are part of the Mississippi River Gorge Regional Park.

References

  1. ↑ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 15, 2006.
  2. ↑ Anfinson, John O. (Summer 1995). "The secret history of the Mississippi's earliest locks and dams" (PDF). Minnesota History. 54 (6): 254–267. JSTOR 20187923.
  3. ↑ Nelson, Time (August 24, 2007), "RIVER HISTORY RECLAIMED - A NEW ST. PAUL PARK MAKES ACCESSIBLE THE REMAINS OF THE HISTORIC MEEKER ISLAND LOCK AND DAM." Saint Paul Pioneer Press

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44°57′14″N 93°12′28″W / 44.95389°N 93.20778°W / 44.95389; -93.20778

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