Retired lock operator recalls working at Hales Bar Navigation Lock
Earl Keeler tours the decommissioned Hales Bar Navigation Lock Dec. 19, 2013 in Jasper, Tenn. Keeler, a former U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nashville District employee, served as a lock operator at Hales Bar from 1960 until the lock ended operations in 1968. He then worked at Nickajack Navigation Lock just downstream until his retirement in 1983. Hales Bar Dam opened in 1913 and the project was the first to provide hydropower in the world. One hundred years later the region looks back and remembers life at Hales Bar Dam and Navigation Lock.