as difficult as its construction was, maintaining the millrace has proven to be just as challenging. Siltation in the canal has been a constant problem. In the 19th and early 20th centuries dredge boats were used to keep the channel flowing. Each year the dredge boat and its crew would work their way upstream from here. The four-man crew lived on the boat. The kitchen houses in the village closest to where the dredge was working provided meals for the crew. Colony folklore has it that the canal is deepest near Middle Amana because the dredge boat crew was fond of Middle Amana cooking and lingered there.
Dredging the canal required that each bridge over the millrace be dismantled and reassembled as the dredge passed. In winter the dredge was moored just upstream from this location. In the 1920s the dredge boats were replaced with gasoline powered draglines that traveled along the levees.
Photo
The millrace dredge working near the village of Amana ca 1920. Photo courtesy of the Amana Heritage Society.
| HM Number | HMWJX |
|---|---|
| Tags | |
| Marker Condition | No reports yet |
| Date Added | Friday, October 17th, 2014 at 3:01pm PDT -07:00 |
| UTM (WGS84 Datum) | 15T E 594275 N 4627791 |
|---|---|
| Decimal Degrees | 41.79638333, -91.86526667 |
| Degrees and Decimal Minutes | N 41° 47.783', W 91° 51.916' |
| Degrees, Minutes and Seconds | 41° 47' 46.98" N, 91° 51' 54.96" W |
| Driving Directions | Google Maps |
| Area Code(s) | 319 |
| Closest Postal Address | At or near 8 48th Ave, Amana IA 52203, US |
| Alternative Maps | Google Maps, MapQuest, Bing Maps, Yahoo Maps, MSR Maps, OpenCycleMap, MyTopo Maps, OpenStreetMap |
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