Qualla: Hauser Dam https://qualla.com/hauser-dam en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:04 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/c/8/2/6/hauser-dam-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Hauser Dam https://qualla.com/hauser-dam Hauser Dam: Introduction https://qualla.com/hauser-dam/ Photo credit Service Depicted: Air ForceOperation / Series: CRISIS REACH 95-02NORTHERN PIKECamera Operator: SSGT. LANCE CHEUNG, Public domain. At 2:30 in the afternoon on April 14, 1908, silt-heavy water began gushing from the base of Hauser Dam. Six minutes later, a section of the structure tore loose, sending a wall of water roaring down the Missouri River toward the small town of Craig. The dam that Samuel Thomas Hauser had built to resurrect his fortune after the Panic of 1893 had just destroyed itself. But the story of Hauser Dam is not one of failure. It is a story of a man in his sixties who refused to give up, of engineering lessons learned the hard way, and of a second dam that still generates power today.

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Image: Service Depicted: Air ForceOperation / Series: CRISIS REACH 95-02NORTHERN PIKECamera Operator: SSGT. LANCE CHEUNG | Public domain

]]> Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/8/2/6/hauser-dam-wp/c826-hauser-dam-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Hauser Dam: A Governor's Gamble https://qualla.com/hauser-dam/ Photo credit Service Depicted: Air ForceOperation / Series: CRISIS REACH 95-02NORTHERN PIKECamera Operator: SSGT. LANCE CHEUNG, Public domain. Samuel Thomas Hauser was not a man easily defeated. As Territorial Governor of Montana from 1885 to 1887, he had built an empire spanning banking, mining, railroads, ranching, and smelting. Then the Panic of 1893 swept through the American economy, and Hauser watched his fortune ...

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Image: Service Depicted: Air ForceOperation / Series: CRISIS REACH 95-02NORTHERN PIKECamera Operator: SSGT. LANCE CHEUNG | Public domain

]]> Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/8/2/6/hauser-dam-wp/c826-hauser-dam-a-governors-gamble.mp3 0:06 2 full Hauser Dam: Six Minutes to Disaster https://qualla.com/hauser-dam/ Photo credit Service Depicted: Air ForceOperation / Series: CRISIS REACH 95-02NORTHERN PIKECamera Operator: SSGT. LANCE CHEUNG, Public domain. The first Hauser Dam was a steel structure built on masonry footings atop gravel, with its ends anchored into bedrock on both sides of the river. Engineers James McKittrick and Gerry had argued repeatedly over the design, and Gerry ordered strengthening modifications. It was not ...

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Image: Service Depicted: Air ForceOperation / Series: CRISIS REACH 95-02NORTHERN PIKECamera Operator: SSGT. LANCE CHEUNG | Public domain

]]> Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/8/2/6/hauser-dam-wp/c826-hauser-dam-six-minutes-to-disaster.mp3 0:06 3 full Hauser Dam: Rising from the River https://qualla.com/hauser-dam/ Photo credit Service Depicted: Air ForceOperation / Series: CRISIS REACH 95-02NORTHERN PIKECamera Operator: SSGT. LANCE CHEUNG, Public domain. Three months after the collapse, United Missouri River Power began reconstruction. Jesse Baker Snow, a noted engineer from New York, oversaw the new design. The second Hauser Dam opened in spring 1911, incorporating hard-won lessons from the failure. This rebuilt structure remain...

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Image: Service Depicted: Air ForceOperation / Series: CRISIS REACH 95-02NORTHERN PIKECamera Operator: SSGT. LANCE CHEUNG | Public domain

]]> Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/8/2/6/hauser-dam-wp/c826-hauser-dam-rising-from-the-river.mp3 0:06 4 full Hauser Dam: The Price of Power https://qualla.com/hauser-dam/ Photo credit Service Depicted: Air ForceOperation / Series: CRISIS REACH 95-02NORTHERN PIKECamera Operator: SSGT. LANCE CHEUNG, Public domain. The collapse nearly bankrupted Samuel Hauser. Cost overruns on the downstream Holter Dam project, waning investor confidence, and liability from the flood pushed him to the brink. He sold his stake to John D. Ryan, who merged the company with several others in October 1912 to for...

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Image: Service Depicted: Air ForceOperation / Series: CRISIS REACH 95-02NORTHERN PIKECamera Operator: SSGT. LANCE CHEUNG | Public domain

]]> Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/8/2/6/hauser-dam-wp/c826-hauser-dam-the-price-of-power.mp3 0:06 5 full Hauser Dam: A Lake Born from Catastrophe https://qualla.com/hauser-dam/ Photo credit Service Depicted: Air ForceOperation / Series: CRISIS REACH 95-02NORTHERN PIKECamera Operator: SSGT. LANCE CHEUNG, Public domain. Hauser Dam's impounded waters did more than generate electricity. The reservoir inundated the lower portion of Prickly Pear Creek, creating nearby Lake Helena as an unintended consequence. This chain of water bodies northeast of the state capital now provides recreation, fisherie...

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Image: Service Depicted: Air ForceOperation / Series: CRISIS REACH 95-02NORTHERN PIKECamera Operator: SSGT. LANCE CHEUNG | Public domain

]]> Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/8/2/6/hauser-dam-wp/c826-hauser-dam-a-lake-born-from-catastrophe.mp3 0:06 6 full