• Monday-What'sUP April 9 - 04:24 pm

Good morning, all!

Yes, you read that correctly on the Pasty Cam page, I said that today's lake is located in both Houghton and Baraga County. But that's not all that makes Prickett Lake different from your everyday, run of the mill lake UP North and thanks to Melanie Hakala Rossi, we get to see it through her lens. There aren't too many bodies of water with stumps and fallen over trees exposed like this. I'm not really up on the particulars of the area, but the water level has to do with Prickett Dam, which I don't have any current information about the status of right now. So, please feel free to chime in with any information you might have that will update us on what's going on in this area.

From what I've heard, in its day, this lake was quite a good fishing hole and that you had to have someone on the lookout for the tree stumps under water, so you wouldn't wreck your motor while out there wetting your line. From the looks of things right now, you wouldn't have any trouble avoiding them. But then again, it would be quite the zigzag ride going around them all. Maybe the answer would be to paddle out there in a kayak or canoe.

This is my favorite picture from Prickett Lake, very different than today's! I have an album of Prickett pics in my gallery. Let's see if this works: http://gallery.pasty.com/displayimage.php?album=580&pid=6539#top_display_media

That place looks like it was hit by some terrible disaster.
Sorry about the above post, Mary, I thought I was 'early posting' on the What's UP page. Is my red face showing? :)

Prickett Dam was built without removing most of the surrounding forest. Once the dam filled, the trees died where they stood. After many years anything above water level broke off. The water level was lowered to repair the dam a few years ago - don't know if that is why the stumps are still exposed or if it's lowered to accept runoff from the spring floods. Normally water would cover all those stumps.

Wakeboarding anyone?

I especially like the top picture with the pine trees.

Looks like the aftermath of an atomic bomb.

Whoa there. Prickett dam is a beautiful lake. It is maintained by the power company which has a turbine on the north end. The Sturgeon river flows from the Hurons and across the road in Alberta. It then goes through the Sturgeon river gorge and empties into Prickett. I have photos of it on my Baraga autumn DVD.
There are several eagle nests along the lake on the towering pines along the cliffs surrounding the Southern end.
The stumps make great fish habitat and the dam is flood control in springtime. The lake is lowered for dam maintenance so more stumps are showing.
I recognized the photo as soon as I saw it.

Makes you want to go out and start cleaning up trees!