Progress on the Big Muddy

In the Cabinet Room of the White House last week, Government officials and legislators from the Dakotas gathered around as President Eisenhower pressed a golden telegraph key. From a loudspeaker, cut in on a long-distance telephone line, came the voice of South Dakota's Governor Sigurd Anderson 1,200 miles away: "Thank you, Mr. President. Fort Randall's first generator is now on the line, producing more power for the great Missouri Basin in the heart of America."

The Fort Randall Dam near Pickstown, S. Dak. is the first of four big Missouri River projects to produce power in the Pick-Sloan development plan for the power-hungry Missouri Valley (TIME, Sept. 1, 1952). Almost two miles long and 160 ft. high, the dam was started in 1946, will have cost nearly $200 million by the time its last unit goes into operation in 1956. In addition to its ultimate power capacity of 320,000 kw., enough to light a city of 500,000, Fort Randall may well serve an immediate purpose of another nature. By impounding high waters this spring, it will not only help prevent floods but also help keep the lower Missouri and Mississippi Rivers navigable this summer if the Southwest's drought continues.

With six Missouri River dams already built or abuilding, nearly $2 billion has been spent since 1944, when the Army Engineers and the Interior Department teamed up in the Pick-Sloan plan. Overall, the plan calls for an outlay of another $9 billion in the next 50 to 75 years, for a total of 137 dams, which would provide flood control and irrigation for 10 million acres of land in ten states, and have a capacity of 3,200,000 kw. The next dams, if Congress approves, are to be started at Glen Canyon and Bridge Canyon on the Colorado River.

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