The Guttenberg Heritage Society and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, will celebrate the reopening of the historic lockmaster house at Lock and Dam 10 in Guttenberg, Iowa, with a ribbon cutting ceremony on June 6 at 3 p.m.
The event will be open to media and the public and will be broadcast on Facebook Live on the Guttenberg Heritage Society’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/guttheritage/.
The lockmaster house has been undergoing rehabilitative work since June 2020. The improvements for visitor safety included removing lead paint; restoring historic characteristics of the house such as a roof replacement, wood siding work, chimney work; and reconditioning the shutters and windows.
“It is important to the Corps to provide a positive and safe experience to those visiting, but we also recognize the need to preserve the historic character of the house,” said Vanessa Alberto, Corps archaeologist. “This house is one of the last remaining lockmaster houses on the river, and it is a symbol of the cultural history and heritage of not only the 1930s Great Depression but the construction of the lock and dam system on the river.”
The lockmaster house was built between 1937 and 1938 and is the last remaining lockmaster residence in its original location on the Mississippi River. From 1938 to 1971, lockmasters were required to live in these houses with their families on lock and dam sites. A lockmaster lived at the Lock and Dam 10 lockmaster house until 1990. The Corps now leases the house to the Guttenberg Heritage Society to operate as a museum.
The St. Paul District maintains 13 locks and dams from Minneapolis to Guttenberg, Iowa, and manages 243.6 miles of the Mississippi River 9-foot navigation channel. Keeping this system open is vital to the nation’s economy. The commercial navigation industry transported nearly 17 million tons of commodities through Lock 10 during the 2020 navigation season. The industries making these shipments within the St. Paul District saved nearly $400 million by using the inland waterways instead of overland shipping methods.
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Release no. 21-044