Finished in 1913, Powersite was Missouri’s first venture into hydropower. A consortium of St. Louis investors engaged the Ambursen Hydro-Electric Construction Company of Boston to build one of their patented hollow, reinforced concrete structures. As would be the case eighteen years later on the Osage River, the original investors were replaced by a more substantial concern. New York capitalist Henry Doherty took over the project ultimately adding it to his Empire Electric Group, part of his mammoth Cities Services holding company.
Hundreds of these run-of-the-river dams with no storage capacity had been built back East where streams with adequate fall ran near populated areas. Missouri was late in developing hydropower because suitable Ozark rivers were far from cities. An incentive to build Powersite Dam was the opportunity to sell electricity to the mines of the Joplin lead district. Supplying power to St. Joseph Lead Co. in the St. Francois Mountains would be a consideration in the decision to build Bagnell Dam.
Powersite was the first dam on the storied White River. James Fork of the White: Transformation of an Ozark River, 352 pages with more than 400 color illustrations, examines the entire watershed of the famed Ozark float stream, a tributary of the White River. Lens & Pen Press is having a half price sale for all titles. James Fork is now available on our website at www.dammingtheosage.com for $17.50 (half the original price of $35), postage paid.
