According to the Corps of Engineers, who I talked to, the Hercules was stationed farther south but in the winter would come north to repair locks outside of the normal shipping season.
This work was done under brutal conditions as you can see. And dad must have worked hard
to take these pictures - handling large-format cameras (he had a 120mm for color slides and a 4 by 5 inch Speed Graphic for negatives) - must have been daunting.
Part of the work on the lock was done by this diver.
The negatives were numbered and this is one of the last so this must have been the tail end of the operation. Working on top of a lock in the cold with huge tools doesn't look easy but mast has been reasonably routine. We lived in Winona, Minnesota, in early 1956 - at that time I think dad was still working for the Winona Daily News. One of the pictures says this was Lock and Dam #5, which is at Fountain City, Wisconsin. This makes sense since this was just upriver from Winona. Dad is no longer alive and although I think he mentioned this operation to me, I was only 7 years old then. He must have written a story about this but I haven't found it yet.
The Corp of Engineers told me that the Hercules is no longer in service. There are new ways of maintaining locks that don't require the services of this behemoth.
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