• Wednesday-What'sUP May 15 - 04:39 pm

Bob Gilreath was recently on the road touring in the Keweenaw and made a stop at the Michigan Historic Civil Engineering Landmark, Redridge Steel Dam, which was completed in 1901. It spans the Salmon Trout River and is a flat-slab buttress steel dam, which is an unusual material for a dam such as this to be built of. Normally a dam of this type would be constructed of masonry or earthenworks. The Redrige Dam is said to be one of only three dams constructed like this in the United States.

Prior to the building of the steel structure, there was a wood crib dam which formed a reservoir that supplied water to the Atlantic Stamp Mill. You can see what remains of that wooden structure in Bob's second photo. When that reservoir became inadequate, the steel structure was designed and built.

The holes that you see in the third photo, were cut into the steel dam in 1979, so that the water could flow through freely, since by then the mining operations had long been ceased and the reservoir was no longer needed.

It's quite an interesting place to visit in Stanton Township, thanks for taking us along, Bob!

Looks like a nice outing.

I love it UP there! My dad had some good luck fishing that area. When he took my hubby, they didn't have such good luck, though. Still a great drive out there! If you drive all the way to Freda, though, remember to take the covered road either there or back. Love walking the cemetery out there, too. I have a lot of relatives buried out there.

Thank you for the photos, Bob! What a fascinating structure!

What are the 4 structures at the top of the dam? Below each one is a series of what look to be brackets. You can see the top of a couple in the 5th photo. Are these the old overflow outlets?

Have only been out there once ~ and went out along the Covered Road. Would love to go back.

Which cemetery are your relatives in Deb?

Wouldn't have wanted to ride a train over that trestle!:-<

Remnants of days gone by...always interesting to view them. Old railroad trestles make the best scenic ATV's/snowmobile routes.

jbuck; I would say judging by the placement, and that they are located above the gates for water level control, that they are the gate controls. If you look at the front view of the dam you can see the shaft supports and from the down stream side you will see the handles sticking above the top of the dam. As for access to the handwheels and the gates ( both gone now ) there probably was a wood walk way that is now long gone. Archive photos may show the dam controls as they were when it was new.

shirlohio: I was on the trestle when the tracks were still there but did not make it very far out. Not fond of high places. No hand rails and open between the ties. A real knee knocker.
Jim ME68

Thanks James! That makes sense.

From the far shots it looks like there are still a few ties across the top of the trestle, but way too few! What line used those tracks & trestle?

Wvyooper, just looking at it would set my knees to knocking, much less trying to walk it!!

Today is Peace Officers Memorial Day. Fly your flag at half staff until sunset.

My heart rate increases looking at some of those photos as well, but because I remember how awful I felt when I tried to walk out on the structure. Heights I'm alright with - it's edges I can't stand... and that's all edge! I'll jump out of an airplane any day - just don't ask me to stand on the edge of a cliff, or a high river bank.

Airplane doors have edges, Mel.;->

The Redridge dam is a complex system. The remains of the over flow weirs and channel are located back in the bush to the right of the dam as viewed from downstream. The also was/is another railroad bridge over the overflow channel. The Atlantic Mine and mill succumbed to air blasts at the mine in 1906 and the Baltic closed during the depression. Copper Range was left with a major reservoir and dam to manage that lost its economic purpose. Eventually deferred maintenance caught up with it and the dam topped over a couple of times. So the holes were cut into it. A few years ago the was an effort to save the then intact wood dam, but that failed and the old dam was destroyed.

I like the man made waterfall spilling over.