In Memory of those who lost their lives. Fort Peck Dam, September 22, 1938

Sometimes the only way to make your way into history books is to die doing something noteworthy. On September 22, 1938. A huge section of the Fort Peck Dam slid, killing eight workers. Two of the bodies were recovered, the others still lie beneath the dam.The slide set the work on the dam by almost an entire year.  Fort Peck Dam was part of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal to put Americans back to work during the Great Depression. The huge dam was planned to provide flood control. Thousands of workers moved to the area to be a part of the huge project. After the job was done, most moved on. Those eight men, who died that September Day were just doing their jobs, but they will be remembered by every visitor who sees the memorial at the Dam. Their deaths remind us of the price that sometimes has to be paid to conquer and harness nature.



Aerial view of the Slide at Fort Peck Dam, September 22, 1938

 There is much information about the dam on line, one source that gives a pretty good general picture is http://www.fortpeckdam.com/ .  To learn more about how the workers lived, I recommend the book, Fifty Cents an Hour: The Builders and Boomtowns of the Fort Peck Dam, by Lois Lonnquist