It's a rite of passage every year after the Spring rains to go to the Saylorville Dam Spillway and watch the large volumes of water being discharged into the Des Moines River. Another few rain events and we might well be in flood stage. I have been told the current discharge rate is 12,000 cubic feet per second. As a kid, you learn that you just DO NOT go play by the spillway as its deadly waters would likely never release you. However, fishermen love fishing just downstream of the spillway. Needless to say, one is always awed and humbled whenever they see this display of the power of water.