page_title: Yamhill River lock and dam
section_title: Post-closure disposition
hierarchical_section_title: Yamhill River lock and dam / Post-closure disposition
caption_attribution_description: English: w:Yamhill River Lock and Dam near w:Lafayette, Oregon
context_page_description: 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 210 feet long and 40 feet 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 an 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.
context_section_description: The Corps of Engineers had maintained the property next to the lock and dam as a park for a number of years.  The county had sought the property for a number of years, and the river there had become a popular place for swimming.
  The transfer was finally effected on January 19, 1959, by a deed to Yamhill County, which included the park area as well.  The details of the transfer had been worked out by the General Services Administration.
  In June 1960, the Oregon State Fish Commission ordered that demand be made on Yamhill Count to either build a fish ladder at the dam, or remove the dam entirely.  By this time, the lock gates had broken out, but the dam still held water for about 20 farmers.  After three years of negotiations and disputes about whether the dam should be preserved for irrigation purposes, or destroyed to facilitate the spawning runs of salmon, on September 18, 1963, by order of the state fish commission, the dam was destroyed by the use of explosives.
caption: The lock walls as they appeared in 2009.
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