This is the second installment in a series of articles republished from The Mandonian, a magazine published by the Minnesota and Ontario Paper Company.

From the Sept.- Oct. Mandonian 1948

There is one Mandonian who can claim a distinction held by no other in the company. The man is Chris Monson, dam tender at Kettle Falls on Rainy Lake. His distinction is that of living in the only place in the border area where a person could stand on his doorstep and look SOUTH, over the International Boundary into Canada.

Monson's job consists of watching over the dam, keeping a record of water levels and reporting daily to Mando's International Falls headquarters on these conditions. His other responsibility is that of raising or lowering the flood gates of the dam to maintain water levels in Rainy lake. This latter job he once did himself, but of late years he has merely advised Mando whenever this became necessary and men are sent out to help him.

Monson's reports and requests for this help are now speeded by Mando's FM radio system, and his daily call, from the transmitter in his house near the dam, has become a familiar one to the International Falls operator.

The Kettle Falls dam was built in 1914 by the Rainy River Improvement Company to control levels of Rainy Lake and insure a constant head of water for the power dams at the mills. The dam later was taken over by Minnesota and Ontario Paper Company about 1931.

Although always spoken of as Kettle Falls dam, there are actually two dams at that point. One on the Canadian side, and one on the American side, separated by a small island. One of the International regulations in the control of the flow is that exactly the same amount of water must pass over each dam. This is to insure both countries receiving an equal amount of the water.

The dams are built at the outlet of Lake Namakan where it flows into Kettle River and eventually into Rainy lake. Lake Namakan is the great reservoir from which Rainy lake draws its required supplementary water.

The problem in maintaining water levels is to conserve as much water as possible during the summer mouths of effective precipitation for use during the long winter months when no effective precipitation is available.

Chris Monson was born near Bergen, Norway, in 1875. At the age of 28 he came to the United States and went to work for the Pennsylvania Diamond Drilling Company where he worked for three years as a diamond driller. When iron ore was discovered near Crane Lake, Minnesota, he homesteaded at what is now "Byke," Minnesota. He found some low grade ore, and still maintains the homestead. He later purchased a gas boat and did freighting on Crane and Namakan lakes.

His first employment with Mando was in November 1910, when he and his boat were engaged to freight supplies from Kettle Falls to Camp 9 on Little Vermilion lake. He remained at the camp after completing his freighting assignment and worked on camp construction and later he worked for Mando as woods "straw boss" in the winter, and as boat captain on the Indian Girl, towing logs on Rainy lake.

When construction of the dam was started, he freighted in much of the supplies and in 1915 he removed the hoisting equipment and the coffer dam. Upon completion of the dam, he was engaged as gaugeman and watchman, the position he has held ever since.