The museum at Lock and Dam 22

About 70 years ago, there were maybe four dozen of buildings like this along the Ohio River. As the new dams replaced the old ones, many were demolished. A few remain, and I can think of three that are open to the public as museums. This is one.

Lock and Dam 22 was at Ravenswood, West Virginia. It began operations in either 1918 or 1919, depending on the source material and ceased in 1971, I think it was, when the Racine Locks and Dam raised its pool. As with the other wicket-type dams on the Ohio that were build between 1909 and 1927, it had one lock that was 110 feet wide and 600 feet long. The lower pool elevation maintained by Lock and Dam 23 at Racine, Ohio was 543.6 feet above mean sea level (MSL). Dam 22 raised the riverby 7.8 feet to 551.4 feet. The Racine Locks and Dam raises its pool by 22 feet. The normal pool of the Robert C. Byrd Gallipolis Locks and Dam is 538 feet. Racine's pool is 560 feet MSL.

The last lock worker residences on the former dam reservation at 22 were demolished a few years ago, Tbe powerhouse of this old dam was turned into a museum. It's a mix of local history and river history. Inside you can find a diver's helmet from the former Lock and Dam 21 a few miles upriver, and you can see the lockmaster's office, the bay window area on the right side of the building seen above. The window gave the lockmaster a 180-degree view of the dam and the river.

Here's that office. It's not big, but it was interesting.

I was born too late to have much firsthand knowledge of the old wicket dams. I did visit Locks and Dam 53 twice -- once on a trip to the Paducah area in 1986 and again after a media tour of the new Olmsted Locks and Dam in 2018. I asked the head of the Corps' Louisville District if I could visit 53 after the media tour of Olmsted was finished She said I could, so I did.

There is something about the old wicket dam systems that interests me. It could be because it's an era that passed during my lifetime. I hope to get down to the lower Ohio this summer and see the one near Evansville that's available for community events. We'll see.