[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 184 (Sunday, October 25, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6590-S6591]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             75TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE KENTUCKY LOCK AND DAM

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, the Commonwealth of Kentucky is home 
to several marvels of engineering. These feats of concrete and metal 
have brought prosperity and opportunity to tens of thousands of 
Kentucky families. Earlier this month, we recognized the 75th 
anniversary of one of these landmarks, the Kentucky Lock and Dam. For 
three-quarters of a century, this massive structure has delivered 
electricity, commerce, and jobs to West Kentucky. I would like to take 
a moment to congratulate this community for brilliantly taking 
advantage of its geography to improve the quality of life for 
generations.
  In October 1945, a crowd of roughly 20,000 gathered for a glimpse of 
the first U.S. President to ever visit Marshall County and the mammoth 
construction project he came to dedicate. Although President Truman's 
visit was only temporary, the Kentucky Lock and Dam's rural 
electrification marked a turning point that has lasted for decades. It 
began as plans drawn in a humble patch of dirt by local businessman 
Luther Draffen and engineers from the Tennessee Valley Authority. 
Luther envisioned a lock and dam system that, for the first time, would 
bring electricity to much of Marshall County and the Jackson Purchase 
region. He relentlessly pushed for the investment and construction of 
the project to improve flood control, enhance the flow of commercial 
traffic, and power the region's future.
  Luther made some influential allies along the way, including Senator 
Alben Barkley, who began his political career a few miles down the road 
in Paducah. Barkley was elected Senate majority leader in 1937 and, 
with his new clout, secured the first appropriation for the Kentucky 
Lock and Dam's construction the next year. Today, the dam creates the 
largest water reservoir in the eastern United States.
  In my career, I have had my own opportunities to deliver for the 
families who depend on the Kentucky Lock and Dam. As its waterway 
traffic increased, I led the authorization for the construction of a 
new and larger lock. Since then, I have directed over $600 million to 
the project through the Appropriations Committee, investing in 
Kentucky's 20,000 maritime workers and their future. As work continues 
on the lock, I will always continue to support this project and the 
Kentuckians it serves.
  Just up the river, we celebrated the ribbon cutting of a similar 
project at the Olmsted Locks and Dam in 2018. Over the course of three 
decades, the Olmsted became one of the largest civil works projects in 
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' history. Today, it sees more commercial 
traffic than any other inland waterway location within the United 
States. From its authorization through completion, I was working in the 
Senate to ensure the project received necessary funding for the 
families who depend on it.
  So I am proud to join this community in marking the 75th anniversary 
of the Kentucky Lock and Dam and its transformative impact on this 
region. I look forward to the completion of the new lock project to 
continue its great benefits for years to come.
  Bobbie Foust, a columnist for the Marshall County Tribune-Courier, 
attended the dedication of Kentucky Lock and Dam in 1945. She recently 
wrote an incredible article about its historic impact, and I ask 
unanimous consent the article be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

        [From the Marshall County Tribune-Courier, Oct. 6, 2020]

 Kentucky Dam Brought Prosperity 75 Years Ago; Promoters Drew Plan in 
                         Dirt at a Plum Thicket

                           (By Bobbie Foust)

       It was October 10, 1945. The weather was sunny and warm. 
     President Harry S. Truman was dedicating Kentucky Dam from a 
     platform below that powerful engineering achievement.
       The dam had been producing electricity for 13 months. The 
     crowd was estimated at 20,000, and it was the only time a 
     sitting president has visited Marshall County.
       I was 11 years old, and I was there.
       Saturday will mark the 75th anniversary of that dedication. 
     It will pass with little fanfare. Yet it is impossible to 
     understand the impact Kentucky Dam has had on western 
     Kentucky unless you have experienced it.
       Kentucky Dam literally pushed Marshall County and environs 
     out of poverty. It was the brainchild of Calvert City 
     businessman Luther Draffen and U.S. Sen. Alben Barkley of 
     Paducah. Barkley later became vice president of the United 
     States. Their unwavering work to have the dam built and 
     located here is unmatched.
       For those born after 1945, Kentucky Dam, Kentucky Lake and 
     Kentucky Dam State Resort Park have just been here for their 
     enjoyment. However, there's a powerful--at times poignant--
     backstory of how they became reality.
       At a 1975 dinner, the late Murray State University 
     Professor L.J. Hortin painted a vivid picture of Luther 
     Draffen as the driving force behind Kentucky Dam: ``In 1936, 
     we met in an old plumb thicket overlooking the Tennessee 
     River and there was poverty all around us,'' Hortin said. 
     ``If anybody had predicted we'd be in this beautiful Calvert 
     City Country Club now, I wouldn't have believed it.''
       During the plumb thicket meeting, Tennessee Valley 
     Authority engineers and Draffen drew plans of the dam in the 
     dirt with a pointed stick for Senator Barkley and a bevy of 
     congressmen.
       Before the dam, Marshall County was a poor farming 
     community. Thousands were leaving to work in factories in 
     Detroit and Flint, Michigan and chemical industries or steel 
     mills in Akron and Cleveland, Ohio. Electric power didn't 
     exist here. There were no electric lights, electric 
     refrigerators or kitchen ranges, running water or indoor 
     plumbing. Farm families lit their homes with kerosene lamps. 
     In winter, families heated their homes with wood-burning 
     fireplaces or potbellied coal stoves. Neither television nor 
     the internet existed though some families had battery-powered 
     radios.
       In 1933 Congress passed the Tennessee Valley Authority Act, 
     the New Deal federal agency that built a series of 16 dams 
     including Kentucky Dam. Kentucky Dam had three objectives--
     enhanced navigation, flood control, and hydroelectric power 
     production. After operations at the dam began, it took 
     another five years before rural electric cooperatives, 
     created under the Rural Electrification Act of 1936, extended 
     electric power to farm communities.
       The history of economic development in the lower Tennessee 
     River Valley and construction of Kentucky between July 1, 
     1938 and Aug. 30, 1944 is a long series of events going back 
     to the Civil War. Without Draffen's vision, financial 
     investment, time and political prowess the dam might never 
     have been built at the Gilbertsville townsite. Though he 
     didn't do it alone, he was the driving force.
       Draffen solicited and received help from a litany of heavy 
     hitters of his era. Besides Barkley, there was Hortin, 
     Paducah broadcaster Hecht Lackey, Congressmen Voris Gregory 
     and Noble Gregory of Mayfield, Senators Kenneth McKellar of 
     Tennessee and George Norris of Nebraska. Draffen also led the 
     powerful Lower Tennessee Valley Association, made up of about 
     40 business leaders from western Kentucky, northwest 
     Tennessee, southeast Missouri and southern Illinois. LTVA's 
     single goal was to ``bring prosperity to this region,'' known 
     as ``the Valley.'' Electrification was crucial if the 
     Valley's people were to prosper.
       Draffen wasn't the first person to envision damming the 
     lower Tennessee River. Efforts to tame the river, especially 
     for navigation and flood control, began as early as 1864. 
     What Draffen understood was that electrifying ``the Valley'' 
     was the only way to alleviate poverty. Building a 
     hydroelectric power dam would achieve that goal. In 1928, 
     Draffen made 48 trips to Louisville at his own expense to 
     lobby Kentucky Utilities to provide electricity here. KU 
     provided electricity to Paducah, but refused to extend its 
     lines into rural communities saying, ``there wasn't 
     sufficient need.''
       Groundwork that eventually prompted Kentucky Dam's 
     construction started June 5, 1920 when Congress authorized 
     the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to conduct a 10-year survey 
     of the Tennessee River Valley. It was the most comprehensive 
     study ever made of any river basin in the United States. In 
     1928, the Corps recommended a flood control, navigation and 
     power dam at Aurora Landing in Marshall County. The 
     recommendation prompted formation of Aurora Dam Clubs in 
     Marshall, Calloway and Graves counties.
       The project went to Congress on March 24, 1930, and on May 
     28, 1931, Southern Utilities Inc. was granted a temporary 
     permit to build the dam. But on May 18, 1933, President 
     Franklin Roosevelt created TVA. That changed the picture. TVA 
     opposed Southern's plan, and the company's permit was allowed 
     to expire.
       Aurora Dam Clubs morphed into the LTVA with Warren Swann of 
     Murray as president, Draffen, vice president and Hortin as 
     secretary. In 1935, Congress authorized TVA to build dams for 
     a nine-foot channel from Paducah to Knoxville, Tennessee. 
     ``It was key legislation,'' Draffen said in a 1973 interview. 
     ``Without that, there was doubt TVA would ever build a dam on 
     the lower Tennessee River.''
       In March 1936, TVA rejected Aurora Landing and recommended 
     Gilbertsville as the preferred site. Then began what Hortin

[[Page S6591]]

     called ``the most frustrating, most difficult problem of the 
     entire effort.'' TVA kept stalling and opposition from 
     private interests arose. ``TVA had moved in but wasn't ready 
     to build the dam,'' Hortin said. ``All the while the nation's 
     economic condition pressed hard on the people. There was 
     hunger, people couldn't get work, and the outlook was grim. 
     TVA would say, `Someday we'll build it.' We wanted them to 
     get it started. TVA was being called socialism, and a lot of 
     unprintable things. But LTVA stayed out of that type rhetoric 
     and petty politics. Our argument was pretty mercenary. We 
     contended that TVA was building dams for other states, it was 
     federal tax money being spent, and here we were at the heart 
     of all this water, and our dam wasn't being built!''
       In January 1937, fate took a hand as nature demonstrated 
     the need for a dam. Rain fell for 19 days. The Tennessee and 
     Ohio rivers and their tributaries overflowed their banks. 
     Multimillions of dollars were lost.
       A crucial piece of legislation passed Congress on Feb. 16, 
     1938. Hortin received a telegram from Sen. Barkley reading: 
     ``Just retained, Gilbertsville, whole TVA appropriation.'' 
     That bill meant TVA's appropriation wouldn't be cut. Still 
     TVA wouldn't use the word, construction. Draffen was on a 
     train bound for Washington to lobby for the bill when he 
     received the news. He continued his journey and thanked each 
     legislator who voted for it.
       LTVA's lobbying bore fruit on July 1, 1938 when Congress 
     appropriated $2.613 million for construction of the dam. Its 
     total cost was $116.2 million. ``On that day the word 
     construction was used for the first time,'' Hortin said. ``It 
     was key; we had our dam!''
       At the height of construction, 5,000 men from several 
     states came to work on the dam. The economy boomed, and 
     housing was needed for the influx of workers. TVA floated 
     homes down the river to Gilbertsville from its worker village 
     at Pickwick Dam and built a self-contained community with 
     schools, administration offices, medical clinic and 
     recreational facilities. That community, just south of old 
     Gilbertsville, became known as ``The Village.''
       After the dam was completed, Draffen recruited Charles Hall 
     to assist him in efforts to entice industry to locate in 
     Calvert City. Hall wrote more than 1,000 letters touting the 
     amenities Calvert City offered--cheap electricity, river, 
     rail and highway transportation. Draffen and Hall reaped 
     success in 1948 when the Pennsylvania Salt Manufacturing 
     Company (now Arkema) announced it would build a plant near 
     Altona. It opened in July 1949. Pittsburgh Metallurgical 
     Company (now Calvert City Metals & Alloys) opened in November 
     1949. Industrialization had begun.
       Predictions that Calvert City's population would balloon 
     from less than 300 to 10,000 by 1960 didn't happen. However, 
     industrialization continued with National Carbide of Air 
     Reduction (now Carbide Industries) opening in January 1953, 
     followed by BFGoodrich Chemical Company (now Lubrizol) and 
     West Lake Chemicals. American Aniline and Extract Company 
     (now Estron) opened in 1954; Airco Chemical Company (which 
     later became Air Products and Chemicals and is now Evonik), 
     and General Aniline and Film Corporation (now Ashland) opened 
     in 1956. Other spin off companies include Wacker, Cymetech 
     and many support businesses.
       A few industries Draffen and Hall courted didn't locate at 
     Calvert City. Hall said General Tire, now closed, opted for 
     Mayfield. Then there was Great Lakes Carbon Corporation owned 
     by George Skakel, father of Ethel Kennedy. In a 1980 
     interview, the late Grand Rivers Mayor John Henry O'Bryan, 
     said Luther Draffen brought Skakel to Grand Rivers to buy 
     land for a plant. Great Lakes Carbon bought more than 1,200 
     acres a little northeast of Grand Rivers from TVA and three 
     private landowners. But in a letter to Hall dated April 3, 
     1952, Skakel said he regretted ``the company had reluctantly 
     decided to abandon its development plans.'' Skakel held out 
     hope that Great Lakes Carbon might build the plant later. But 
     on Oct. 3, 1955, Skakel and his wife, Ann, were killed when 
     their plane crashed.
       Probably the most significant impact electricity from 
     Kentucky Dam made on Marshall County was a higher standard of 
     living for its people. In 2015, earnings in all industries 
     averaged nearly $55,000 annually. Last year, travel and 
     recreation--much of it related to Kentucky Lake created by 
     the dam--added $74 million to the county's economy and 
     Calvert City added 2.994 million in payroll taxes to county 
     coffers.

                          ____________________