The dams are being removed intentionally, and the work is nearing its end.

What Fort Dodge residents had long called the little dam is now gone.

Farther upstream, the Hydroelectric Dam is mostly gone.

One of the gates that allowed water to flow through that dam remains standing on the west side of the river. It will stay there as a result of an agreement with the State Historic Preservation Office, according to City Engineer Tony Trotter.

-Messenger photo by Hans Madsen
The generator house footings and one flood gate have been deliberately left in place as an artifact of the former Hydroelectric Dam.

”They wanted to keep something there to remind people that this structure was once here,” he said.

According to Trotter, there is also a 5-foot-high section of the dam still in place that’s now submerged by water. He said that section is being intentionally left intact for now in an effort to control the release of silt that had accumulated behind the dam.

”The idea behind that was to slowly release the silt,” he said.

Once the water level goes down again, that section will be removed.

In the future, the absence of the two dams may reduce the kind of ice-jam induced flooding some areas are now experiencing.

-Messenger photo by Hans Madsen
With the majority of the work done to remove the Hydroelectric Dam, a bare hillside where crews drove equipment down to work on the project is left on the east bank of the Des Moines River.

”It should prevent ice jams from forming under normal conditions,” Trotter said. ”I don’t know if it would have made much difference this winter, but the frequency of ice jams will be reduced.”

How the river will flow during the hottest and driest months of the summer without the dams in place remains to be seen.

”There’s going to be a little bit of wait and see,” Trotter said. ”Everyone thinks the river is going to narrow up a bit.”

A master plan for the Des Moines River released about three years ago called for removing both dams for safety and environmental reasons.

In January, the Fort Dodge City Council hired Rachel Contracting Inc., of St. Michael, Minnesota, to remove the dams. The company is being paid $274,784 to remove the little dam and $1,186,302.86 to remove the Hydroelectric Dam.

Demolition work began in late January.