Lake Shelbyville...How did it happen...?

Northern Kaskaskia Valley News July 1971

Millions of years ago the Kaskaskia River drained away glacial waters which has cut the sweeping hills and valleys here and created a vista of peace and beauty unmatched in Illinois. The flat Illinois prairie north of this central Illinois region was scraped smooth by gigantic sheets of ice to form flat prosperous farmland. The glacier stopped at Shelbyville in what is known as the Shelbyville Moraine. The town marks the southern most extent of the Wisconsin ice sheet of the Pleistocene Glacial Age. The glacier left behind gray, red and greenish colored rock debris swept form the north. The hillier countryside southward was scraped up and pushed in front of the advancing ice mass.

Indians, like the Kickapoo Tribe, hunted these tree-filled slopes for hundreds of years. They knew the beauty of the river basin. This same beauty has been preserved and enhanced through years of conscientious planning by residents and state and federal governments working together. During the early part of this century, floods caused extensive flood damage in the Kaskaskia River Valley. At first, low levees built by farmers partially protected about 23,100 acres of the river valley, but such precautions proved to be insufficient.

Prior to the adoption of the Flood Control Act of 1938, a small group of men fought long and hard for development of the Kaskaskia River Basin. One such man, Emil Burgard of Fayetteville, began his fight for improvements. Burgard attended meeting after meeting of river town residents on the subject of flood control. The late Henry Norcross, a Carlyle, Ill., newspaper publisher, became interested in the flood control project after attending some of the town meetings. He supported the idea of a reservoir and dam at Carlyle to hold back the Kaskaskia flood waters. Public meetings were held in towns throughout the valley. Interest increased until the advent of World War II, when the project was obscured by larger considerations. The idea of a flood water control program was revived in the early 1950's, given impetus by major floods at New Athens in 1943 and 1950. Businessmen from New Athens discussed a flood control plan with the U.S. Corps of Engineers. Representatives of the Corps explained that the federal government would consider only a comprehensive plan of flood control for the entire Kaskaskia River Basin.

It was in 1952 that Eldon Hazlet, a Carlyle attorney and first president of the Kaskaskia Valley Association, became interested in the program. Hazlet organized citizen groups throughout the area to work for the project's approval. The Kaskaskia Valley Association was formed in 1953 and was organized into the Northern, Central and Southern zones. The Northern Zone was designated to concentrate on the Shelbyville reservoir, the Central Zone on the Carlyle reservoir and the Southern Zone on flood protection facilities at New Athens. Hazlet was named president of the KVA and served as its legal counsel. Burgard was name vice president of the group and later became president of the Kaskaskia Industrial Development Corporation. The KVA promotes and coordinates activities related to the entire flood control project; the development corporation concentrates on navigation channel construction and industrial growth along the river.

Both organizations have state non-profit charters. The corporation at first received its operating finds through contributions, but now finances operations with funds rose through annual dinners. The Kaskaskia Valley Association and the Development Corporation set about immediately after forming to develop a comprehensive flood control and recreation plan for the entire Kaskaskia Valley Members of the groups were involved in Congressional Subcommittee and Committee hearings in Washington in order to gain national approval of the plans.

One of the most important functions of the Kaskaskia Industrial Development Corporation has been to represent the local interest in assuring the federal government of local operation required to make the project possible. It has also provided the legal authority and financial ability to carry out the requirements of local cooperation. One of the main purposes of the Kaskaskia Valley Association has been to provide aid toward those ends.

Flood Control Storage

In 1958 the flood control and water storage plan was adopted by the 85th U.S. Congress, with the same bi-partisan support it still enjoys today. Early in 1962 a real estate office was set up to acquire land for the lake development. The first property acquisition was made on October 11 of that same year. The first contract for construction was let in April, 1963. The contract provided for construction of a combination shelter and comfort station for visitors to the dam site, a building to house radio equipment, a 200-foot steel antenna tower, water lines and sewage disposal facilities. Ground was broken for the first of the construction on May 4, 1963. Since that time, work has progressed steadily until the last of the construction was completed early in the summer of 1970.

Following Hazlet's death several years after the KVA was started, Dale Henry, a Carlyle engineer, became the association's second president. He was succeeded in 1968 by Bill Richardson of Shelbyville, who knows serves as president. Richardson is secretary-treasurer of the First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Shelbyville.

The $57 million Shelbyville dam and lake project located in Shelby and Moultrie counties, is only one phase of the plan for development of the Kaskaskia River Valley. It is a joint project of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Louis District, the Illinois Department of Conservation and the Illinois division of waterways. Of the $57 million for the project, the state has appropriated $14 million to the department and the division of waterways for development of water storage facilities for the reservoir. Construction appropriations by the Department of Conservation for recreation areas total $3,742,000.

In addition to reducing crop and property damage, water storage reservoirs will provide a municipal and industrial water supply, benefits to conservation efforts, and recreational development. The reservoirs will also affect important flood reduction along the middle and lower Mississippi River and aid navigation through releases which control the river level. The overall plan for the River Valley. It is a joint proprehensive unified valley development affording flood protection to more than 69,000 acres of fertile bottom lands in the Kaskaskia Valley.

The Shelbyville Dam across the valley of the river will create a lake with a normal surface area of 11,100 acres. The lake has been filling with water since the official closing of the dam gates on August 1, 1970 and has a capacity of 684,000 acre feet of storage. Over 474,000 acre feet of the storage facilities have been designed for flood control, with the remaining acreage set aside for joint purposes of water supply, fish and wildlife conservation, recreational development and navigation releases.

Lake Shelbyville will be only about one half the size of the Carlyle Reservoir in areas covered and water storage capacity, but it will be much deeper and will feature many "fingers" of water surrounded by heavily wooded shoreline which will make the area one of the most beautiful in the state.

The water level of the lake will vary, depending on flood control needs, from a minimum of 3,000 acres to a flood control pool of 25,300 acres. At normal stage, the water will be within 17 feet of the top. At a minimum water pool, the surface will be 70 feet below the top of the dam. The Shelbyville Dam is slightly longer than half a mile -3,025 feet- and rises 108 feet above the river bed. By way of comparison the structure is about as tall as a nine-story office building.

The new reservoir required relocation and removal measures to highways, railroads and utilities. Included in the work was the raising of two Illinois Central railroad bridges, including 7,770 feet of track and embankment. Protection was also necessary for the existing embankment of the Chicago and Eastern Railroad. On Illinois Route 121, three bridges were built, along with the placement of about 11,941 feet of concrete pavement. A new bridge was constructed on Illinois Route 32, along with 5,752 feet of pavement. About 50 miles of new secondary roads are being built along with the removal of about 54 county road bridges. Also constructed was a new bridge over the Kaskaskia River East of Findlay. The unique bridge has 42 spans and is 3,170 feet long- the longest such bridge in Illinois. At one point during construction of the dam, the structures resembled the great pyramids of Egypt. In its completed form, however, the dam is an imposing sight, a monument to Illinois' progress in the 20th century.

A new era in outdoor recreation has begun in Central Illinois with the completion of the dam and lake at Shelbyville. The state of Illinois, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and local agencies have built not just a dam, not just a lake, but rather a recreational complex that will serve people throughout America.