Louis Philip Trutter Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

A. oh sure. i I
Q. Did you ever go out and watch the process? Didn't they dig parts of it out?
A. Well, I can't remember that they dug anything in the lake except to take the mes out andit0
build a dam.
Q. They had horse driven carts to take away diR, I thought, according to photqpaphs in the
Sangarnon Valley Room. Perhaps it was only trees.
A. Oooh. Now you know where Lake Springfield is now. To the east of them, there's water
over there. You've seen that flooded haven't you? That's the way Lake Sprin@eld was.
Q, So it was low and maybe the perimeter was the deciding factor,
A. I've seen Lake Springfield now not quite that full of flood waters, like it was on the other side
before it became Lake Springfield,
Q. Before the dam?
A. Yeah. Before the dam, and just hold it back. They didn't have to dig it o*. Now they did a
lot of construction there for Vachel Lindsey Bridge and for the dam and then &ter came the
power plant, and Carl Meyer designed that first brick building that says. . .it h q great big letters
across the front of it. That's the original building with the original generators )n there.
Q. So they've expanded it over the years?
A. Tremendously, The MacDonald enginearing company of Kansas City has never stopped
working for the city but the original building was done by Carl Meyer. And Qose letters up there
are about three feet high. When you go buy, take a look at them there.
Q. They're W n for granted.
A. Yeah. That was one of my first jobs working for Carl Meyer. The buildizlig was built and
these big aluminm letters had to be put up there and so the letters had bolt hqles on various, all
different, I've forgotten, I've forgotten that. SpringF~3.d. City Power Plant or something like
that.
Q. I'll have to look at it on my way home.
A. But those letters are three feet high and I had to lay those out on a bigger llscale where all the
holes were on the back so they could put there guys up there, drill the hole iM the wall and anchor
those letters up there, so if they're spaced properly, I did it.