President Truman Dedicates the Kentucky Dam
October 10, 1945
Written by Justin D. Lamb
President Harry S. Truman at the speakers stand at the Kentucky Dam Dedication Ceremony. Luther Draffen and U.S. Senator Alben Barkley seated directly behind the President.
(Courtesy of Marshall County Archives)
After years of fighting, Luther Draffen’s dream had finally been realized with the construction of a dam at Gilbertsville and Marshall County would never be the same again. Residents were now working good jobs and prosperous times were ahead. Affordable electricity was available to all and the devastating flood waters were now controlled by the dam.
At 9:25 a.m. on Wednesday, October 10, 1945, President Harry S. Truman arrived at Paducah Airport in route to dedicate the new dam at Gilbertsville. A crowd of nearly one thousand spectators surrounded the airplane hoping to catch a glimpse of the President.
As the President exited the plane he was greeted by Kentucky Governor Simeon Willis, United States Senators Alben Barkley and Earl Clements, and Luther Draffen. The men stood and chatted for a while before they car and made their way through downtown Paducah where they were greeted by several people lined up through the streets. The President’s entourage then made it way out of town and headed toward Gilbertsville for what would become a historic event.
A huge crowd awaited the President when he arrived at Kentucky Dam. Several county officers and officials of the TVA were there to welcome him. Congressman Noble J. Gregory served as Masters of Ceremonies and Senator Alben Barkley introduced the President.
In his speech President Truman remarked on the uphill battle of the Tennessee Valley Authority, “Nine years ago TVA was a highly controversial subject. Today it is no longer an experiment, but a demonstration. By all except a small minority it is now regarded as a great American accomplishment, of which all of us are proud.”
President Truman continued, “This dam [Kentucky Dam] will hold back four million acre feet of flood water from the lower Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. The people behind the levees on those rivers know how much that will mean to them in protection from disaster. When the danger of flood is past, those flood waters are not to be wasted. They will be put through the water wheels here at the dam to produce great quantities of electricity. That electricity will rush to serve the people of the Valley, their homes and farms and industries.”
According to an oral history interview with Luther Draffen’s widow, Dora, after the dedication ceremony, President Truman, Congressman Gregory, and Senator Alben Barkley came to the Draffen home where she cooked hamburgers and hot dogs in the basement. She also stated that President Truman stayed overnight in the Draffen home before returning to Washington.
There is no doubt that the Kentucky Dam forever changed Marshall County. A few years after the completion of the dam, Draffen began to develop the riverfront in Calvert City for industrial use. In 1949, Draffen scored a huge victory when Pennsalt moved to the city to process fluorspar and more industries soon followed. Before the Kentucky Dam, Marshall County had the lowest income per capita in the entire state, but by 1970, it was the highest.
None of this could have been possible without the Kentucky Dam and the leadership of Luther Draffen. Senator (and later Vice President) Alben Barkley once commented that “Draffen had as much or more to do with the development of the lower Tennessee Valley than any other private citizen.”
Luther Draffen’s legacy is best summed up in the words of Kentucky Supreme Court Justice Bill Cunningham when he wrote, “Future generations of west Kentuckians may never know his name. But lives yet unborn are even now destined to be favorably affected by the life of Luther Draffen.”
