Silver Lake Dam (Michigan) facts for kids

The Silver Lake Dam is a large structure built on the Dead River in Michigan, USA. It is about 30 miles (48.3 km) away from the city of Marquette, Michigan. This dam is the first of five dams found along the river. Unlike some dams, it was not used to make electricity.

The Silver Lake Dam is famous because it broke on May 14, 2003. This event caused about 1,800 people to leave their homes for safety. The dam was later rebuilt in 2008.

Building the Silver Lake Dam

The Silver Lake Basin is a natural lake that feeds into the Dead River. The very first dam was built here in 1896. Its purpose was to hold more water in the lake.

The dam was rebuilt two more times after that. It was first rebuilt in 1911–1912, and then again in 1943–1944. The dam built in 1944 was made taller by about 2.4 m. A company called Cleveland-Cliffs owned it then.

In 1988, the Upper Peninsula Power Company bought the dam. In late 2002, a part of the dam called Dike No. 2 was changed. It was replaced with a special safety feature called a fuse plug. This was done to help the dam handle very large floods better.

Why the Dam Broke

Before the dam broke, a lot of rain fell in just two days. About 4 to 5 inches (10 to 13 cm) of rain soaked the area. At the same time, the weather became warm, and the ground was still frozen very deeply. This mix of heavy rain, warm weather, and frozen ground led to the dam's failure.

On May 14, 2003, the earthen fuse plug spillway of the Silver Lake Dam gave way. This released a huge amount of water from Silver Lake Basin – about nine billion gallons! This massive rush of water also caused another dam downstream, the Tourist Park Dam, to break. However, the three other dams further down the river – Hoist Dam, McClure Dam, and Forestville Dam – stayed strong and did not break.

Impact of the Flood

The floodwaters caused many problems for roads and bridges. The "Steel Bridge" on CR 510 had to be closed. As the water reached Marquette, an old bridge on CR 550 went underwater. A newer bridge next to it on CR 550 was also closed. These road closures meant that the town of Big Bay was cut off from the rest of the county.

Several bridges over the Dead River and its smaller streams were damaged or destroyed. This included bridges on county roads AAO and AAT, and the Lakeshore Boulevard bridge. Officials estimated that the damage to roads and bridges cost around $650,000.

The flood made it necessary for about 1,800 people to leave their homes. These homes were on the north side of Marquette, covering an area of about 485 acres (196 ha). The total damage from the flooding was over $100 million. Luckily, no one was hurt or died because of the flood.