The Yamhill River lock and dam was completed in 1900. It was built near Lafayette, Oregon, to allow better river transport on the Yamhill River from Dayton, to McMinnville, Oregon. While the Corps of Engineers had recommended against construction of the lock, it was built anyway, largely as a result of political effort by the backers of the project. For almost forty years prior to the lock construction there had been efforts made to construct a lock and dam on the Yamhill River.
The lock was a single-lift chamber long and wide, located on the west side of the river. The dam extended from the east bank of the river to the eastern lock wall, and when the lock gates were shut, acted to back up the Yamhill river and raise the water level sufficiently to allow ready steamboat navigation to McMinnville during the summer dry season. During the winter, the lock and dam were more of an obstruction than a navigational aid, as they were frequently overtopped by freshets and floods, sometimes as high as or higher than twenty feet above the lock walls.
The lock ceased to be used in any significant way soon after it was built. There was an upsurge in use of the river during the 1930s and 1940s primary for transport of logs. The lock continued in operation until the 1950s, when the U.S. government concluded that the little amount of traffic on the river no longer justified the expense.
The lock and dam were then turned over to Yamhill County. The county lacked the funds to maintain or restore the lock, and the dam, having been viewed as a barrier to spawning salmon, was eventually destroyed with use of explosives. The lock walls remain to this day. The lock keeper's residence, built at the same time, and now in private hands, also remains. A county park is nearby from which the lock structure can be viewed. Some other remains of the work, such as pilings, are also visible at low water.
While not particularly remarkable as an engineering project, the lock was one of only three lock and dam projects commenced in Oregon and indeed in all of the Pacific Coast states by the United States government during the 19th century.
The lock and dam are also representative of the results of local pressure for expenditure of funds from the national government for works of a local nature. A substantial portion of the project remains visible to this day, and has been said to be "one of the last tangible remnants in the Upper Willamette Valley of a time when river navigation played an important role in transporting freight and passengers."
The lock is sometimes referred to as the Lafayette Lock. The Lafayette Locks Park, maintained by Yamhill County, Oregon now occupies the site of the old lock and dam.
Location The lock was (and is) located about one mile downriver from the town of Lafayette and about five miles upriver from the confluence of the Yamhill and the Willamette Rivers. The fall of the Yamhill river between McMinnville and the lock was . The river in its natural state had a stretch of rapids running from Lafayette, which was originally called Yamhill Falls, downriver to the lock site, over which the river fell nine feet.
The source of the Yamhill River was the Coast Range in Oregon. The river flows to the east about , to a point about upriver from Portland, Oregon, where it joins the Willamette River. Light-draft steamboats routinely ran to Dayton, about five miles above the river's mouth. The town of Lafayette was about up from the river mouth.
At Lafayette there was a stretch of rapids over which the river fell in . From the foot of the rapids to the mouth of the river the fall was just . High water in the Yamhill River, or a rise of in the Willamette River would submerge the rapids.
From Lafayette the river ran about to McMinnville, the seat of Yamhill County, a prosperous agricultural region. This stretch of the river was from wide, and obstructed with snags and overhanging trees. The snags were particularly bad for a stretch running from McMinnville down river. If the snags and overhanging trees were removed, steamboats drawing of water could proceed to McMinnville. The season in which boats could pass over the rapids was limited to about five months a year.
In December 1892 there had been no preparation at all for use of the river to ship products by water. No roads led to the river, and there were no storehouses on the banks. There seemed to be very little interest taken in the recent clearance of the river. One steamer regularly ran the whole year between Portland and Dayton, and made a good business. This steamer could have extended its route to McMinnville if there had been sufficient business on the river to make it worthwhile.
In 1892, a rail line crossed the Yamhill river at McMinnville and at LaFayette, which were only apart by wagon road. Lafayette and Dayton were only apart by road, and all of the country was flat.
In 1910, the Yamhill river was described as "a limpid stream of shallows and deeps in Summer, a brawling torrent in Winter." In 1874, the Yamhill was examined by the engineering department of the U.S. army, which found that the river would vary from a shallow chain of pools in the summer to a "river of great power and strength" whose waterlines along the banks showed a rise, sometimes, of over during winter and spring floods.
Steam navigation to McMinnville before the lock Prior to the construction of the lock, small steamers were able to run to McMinnville. The very early steamers Enterprise (115 ft.)and Hoosier (50 ft; 5 tons) operated up river from the place, known then as Martin's Landing, that was later selected to build the dam. The steamer Elk, , owned by Christopher E. Switzer, also ran on the Yamhill in the late 1850s but after a single season proved to be too large for the route.
In 1867, the People's Transportation Company advertised freight service to McMinnville at a rate of $7.00 per ton. In 1871, the Willamette Transportation Company advertised steamer service to McMinnville at the rate of $3.00 per ton from Portland.
In March 1895, the steamer Toledo (128 ft; 226 tons) made regular trips to McMinnville. Toledo appears to have been the first steamer to reach McMinnville in 14 years. In November 1896, the steamer Gypsy (101 ft.; 213 tons) was placed temporarily on the Portland-McMinnville route.
Early lock proposals Starting even before Oregon became a state, there were five local efforts to build a lock or locks on the Yamhill river. In 1858, the Oregon Argus urged Yamhill County to construct a lock at the mouth of the Yamhill River to allow year-round navigation on the river. The State Rights Democrat, then a partisan newspaper, blamed the failure to construct the locks on Republican domination of politics in Yamhill County.
On January 17, 1859, before Oregon was formally admitted to statehood, Christopher E. Switzer, owner of the steamer Elk filed an act with the territorial government to incorporate the Yamhill Water-Lock and Dam Company, which, with capital stock at the stated value of $50,000, proposed to build a lock at the mouth of the Yamhill sufficient to accommodate a vessel in size, which was the same tonnage as the Elk.
On December 27, 1869, the Yamhill Locks and Transportation Company was incorporated. The company's capital stock was stated to be $75,000. With its main office in McMinnville, the company's purpose, as stated in its articles of incorporation, was to build locks at the mouth of the Yamhill and at the rapids at Lafayette. A dam was built at the mouth of the Yamhill, but this was washed out by a flood in November, 1871.
Other concerns were incorporated for lock construction, including the Yamhill Lock and Transportation Company, formed by a group of Lafayette businessmen on February 17, 1872. In October 1874, articles of incorporation were filed by five persons for the Yamhill River Improvement Company, which, with capital stock of $50,000 divided into shares of $50 each, had the purpose of improving navigation in the Yamhill river, by locks, dams, flumes, cuts and dredging, and also to run steamboats and build warehouses and wharfs. In October 1876 the Yamhill Locks and Manufacturing Company was incorporated. None of these companies were able to build, or apparently even start to build, a lock on the river.
Legislative action
State legislation The Oregon state legislature passed a law in 1876 which created a "franchise" to provide for the construction of locks on the Yamhill river at Lafayette. Under the terms of the franchise, the state reserved the right to purchase the improvement at any time.
Federal legislation A provision of the Rivers and Harbors Act, passed on July 13, 1892, required the Corps of Engineers to prepare a preliminary examination of the possibility of developing slackwater navigation from the mouth of the Yamhill River to McMinnville, by building a lock and dam at Lafayette. The same rivers and harbors act permitted $3,000 in funds to be expended to remove the snags, overhanging trees and other obstructions on the Yamhill river between Lafayette and McMinnville. With this money, these obstructions were cleared in October and November 1892.
In early December 1892, Maj. Thomas H. Handbury (1841-1915) of the Corps of Engineers went along the route in a skiff and found it in "very good boating" condition, with the river about above the low water level. At this water level, Handbury reported "the falls and rapids at Lafayette were entirely obliterated."
Given the apparently adequate road, rail, and riverine transport situation, Major Handbury, who prepared the 1892 report, concluded that construction of a lock and dam at Lafayette was not important enough to the federal government for it to be funded and built. Handbury's superiors in the chain of command at the War Department concurred with him, and passed their recommendations against the project on to Congress.
On May 13, 1896, the Rivers and Harbors bill passed in the U.S. Senate. It authorized expenditure of $200,000 for navigation improvements to the Willamette River and construction of the lock on the Yamhill River. Only $40,000 was actually appropriated by the legislation. Congressman Thomas H. Tongue was involved in securing the financing for the project.
The War Department had determined not to build the lock on the Yamhill. U.S. Representative Binger Hermann was a strong proponent of the project, claiming that increased navigation on the Yamhill would pay for the entire project within one year of its completion. Other political pressure was applied in favor of construction of the lock and dam. The lock project was also favored by Harvey W. Scott, editor of the largest newspaper in the state, the Morning Oregonian.
On November 12, 1897, the Daily Capital Journal, of Salem, Oregon, reported having received a telegram from U.S. Senator George W. McBride that the lock would be built as designed by the engineering department and that the necessary appropriations would be expended by act of Congress. Also in November 1897, Brigadier General John M. Wilson informed by letter the Yamhill County commissioners that Congress had appropriated $160,000 in addition to the previous $40,000, thus providing enough money to construct the lock and dam.
Construction
Bids solicited On January 3, 1898, Capt. W.L. Fisk, U.S. Engineers posted a notice soliciting sealed proposals for construction of a dam and other works on the Yamhill river. Proposals would be accepted at the U.S. Engineer office in Portland, Oregon until noon, February 10, 1898. On February 11, 1898 there were six bids, of which the lowest, $59,918 was from the Astoria partnership of Simon Normile, John Anton Fastabend (c1860-1942), and William F. McGregor. The contract was award to the Normile concern and entered into on March 11, 1898.