When he sent me these photos in 2011, Dan Moziar said: "I worked two summers (1955 & 1956) for the dredging firm Construction Aggregates Corp. (CAC) of Chicago. There were two suction dredges in operation – The Joseph L. Block and the Clarence B. Randall, both (named after) senior executives with Inland Steel and Caland Ore. The dredges were powered by 10,000 H.P. electric motors and each pump line had two more 10,000 H.P. motors on shore to help push the dredged overburden over the land divide.
"I worked in the engineering office of CAC and the operation was headed up by "Boots" Davis and Norman Proehl, two American engineers . . . . Both of these men were football players and I believe that Boots Davis had been an All-American. Recently there was a player with the name of Proehl playing for a ranked team (Notre Dame?) and I suspect that he was the grandson of Norm Proehl.
"I worked for an American civil engineer named Auggie Stoeffler from New Jersey, and I believe his family owned a firm call the Stoeffler Knitting Mills. He was a great man to work for and I learned a lot about engineering from him.
"I was an engineering assistant and dredge statistician, and we kept track of how much overburden the dredges removed each month as CAC was compensated by progress payments. It was an interesting job for an undergraduate engineering student."
August, 2024: Dan Moziar passed away on October 8, 2022 – See his obituary.. When I discussed these photographs with his widow, Susan (Hinton) Moziar, we agreed that Dan most likely was not the photographer – firstly, most of the photos were taken the winter of 1954, but Dan said he worked at CAC during the two summers of 1955 and 1956. Secondly, Susan said in part ". . . . Dan graduated from Queen's in 1958 in Electrical Engineering and soon after went to work for Ontario Hydro in their Junior Engineering Program. I think those were summer jobs he had (at CAC) but I imagine someone took the winter pictures because he would have been away at university in Kingston". Thirdly, Dan couldn't have taken the photos of himself sampling the outflow from the discharge pipe.
May 15, 1954: Taken from the Office looking south towards the work area – electric, mechanical and welding shops. Water elevation 1130.9.
June 26, 1954: 42 inch pipeline to discharge in Marmion Lake.
Undated photo of the tug Manistique. Probably taken in June 1954.
Aug. 7, 1954: One of the 10,000 HP electric motors probably for the dredge Joseph L. Block.
Dec. 4, 1954: Last dredge spud arrives by Kenilworth truck. I do not recall the name of the truck driver, but he was a great driver. I believe he was entered in the Canadian Truck Drivers Rodeo event in 1954 or 1955 and I think he was in the top three in Canada. This spud was probably for the dredge Joseph L. Block.
Another picture of the spud being delivered in Dec. 1954. Not much snow!
Mar. 15, 1955: Earlier picture of Dredge Randall port quarter. Note the port spud is down and the starboard spud is up, which is how the dredge "walked" into the cut.
Mar. 15, 1955: Pipeline discharge into Marmion Lake. Note the water is clear which probably means a startup after a shutdown of the dredge and/or the pipeline for maintenance.
April 10, 1955: Derrick barge #1 used to service the dredges and monitors.
July 3, 1955: Picture of monitor barge Indiana Harbor after a landslide. Note the watergun on deck. The monitor was used to undercut any large cliff banks to create small landslides and not put the dredges in jeopardy. Obviously not successful for the monitor this time.
July 1955: Engineering assistant and dredge statistician Dan Moziar checking the rate of flow at the discharge end into Marmion Lake. Several times a day Dan had to drive to the discharge end of the pipeline and measure the rate of flow (CFS) and also take a silt sample to calculate the average daily removal of the overburden. The results of the several daily readings were then averaged and a production volume was calculated. This volume was then averaged with two other calculations to produce a daily production figure. The dredging company CAC of Chicago received progress payments based on the daily production calculations.
July 1955: Dan Moziar taking a silt sample for calculating daily dredge production.
Jan. 21, 1956: View of the dredge Clarence B. Randall pumping silt from Falls Bay.
Many thanks to the late Dan Moziar for providing these photos. For more information about them, please email
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