Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 72, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 May 1909 — Little Monon Ditch Dredge To Do Muck Dredging Here. [ARTICLE]

Little Monon Ditch Dredge To Do Muck Dredging Here.

E- G. Sternberg, of the firm of Sternberg & Sons, went to Monon today to look after the closing up of the Little, Monon dredging job. The mouth of the Little Monon will be in the Dobbins ditch, which runs through the town of Monon and which has a lower channel than the Big Monon ditch, which is further south and lyidg almost parallel to the Dobbins ditch. The dredge in the Little Mois ready to open the last ground to the Dobbins ditch, but as the Little Monon cuts off from the upper end of the Monon proper, the opening of the ditch into the Dobbins ditch will drain the water out of the Monon ditch to such an extent that not enough water will be left to float the dredge at a height necessary to complete the digging through the high land where it is now in operation. Some of this land requires a channel from 25 to 27 feet in depth. It is provable that the dredge in the Little I Monon will be taken to within some 10 or 15 feet of the Dobbins ditch but not opened through until the big ditch dredge has passed over the high land, which will require two or three weeks yet. As the dredge is to be taken from the Little Monon channel and brought to the Iroquois river within the next few days the obstruction will have to be removed by dynamite and shovel later on. If it is decided to finish the ditch and run the water into the Dobbins ditch a dam will have to be built up near the big Monon to hold the water for floating the big dredge. The building of this dam, Mr. Sternberg fears, would result in an overflow that would ruin many crops. It is quite a puzzle just what to do and Mr. Sternberg had not decided when he left here today how he would decide it. . . The dredge from the Little Monon will be taken overland to the river above the Burk bridge, north of Rensselaer, and the muck will be thrown out for a distance of about three or four miles. This will require the removal of both the Burk and the Pullin bridges. When the digging is completed the dredge will be again torn up and hauled to the Gangloff farm east of Rensselaer where the rock ledge is to be removed and , for which Sternberg & Sons have the contract. They have decided that it will be cheaper to move the dredge in this way than to remove and return the Stackhouse, Halligan and railroad bridges. B. J. Moore will do the drilling and blasting for the removal of the rock ledge.