Wixom Lake facts for kids
Wixom Lake was a reservoir in the U.S. state of Michigan from 1925 to 2020. It was named after Frank Wixom, who was instrumental in building the Edenville Dam. Unusually for its size, Wixom Lake boasts a lighthouse on Musselman Island. From 2019-2020, an agreement to buy the dam and reservoir by the Four Lakes Task Force, a "county-delegated authority" under the State of Michigan, from Boyce Hydro L.L.C. was in place, However, in May of 2020, the lake was destroyed when the earthen dam used to impound it overtopped and then collapsed. From 2018 to 2020, the impoundment was regulated by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE).
The lake typically had a surface area of 1,980 acres (8.0 km2), a shoreline of more than 84 miles (135 km), a maximum capacity of 66,200 acre-feet (81,700,000 m3), a normal capacity of 36,000 acre-feet (44,000,000 m3), and a maximum depth of 40 feet (12 m).
| Lake Name | Summer | Winter |
|---|---|---|
| Secord | 750.8 | 747.8 |
| Smallwood | 704.8 | 701.8 |
| Wixom | 675.8 | 672.8 |
| Sanford | 630.8 | 627.8 |
Wixom Lake was the third in a series of four reservoirs along the Tittabawassee River, each controlled to a lower elevation during the winter flood control season and a higher elevation during the summer recreation season. In April 2020, Michigan's EGLE sued the dam's operator, alleging it had lowered Wixom Lake's water level without permission in 2018 and 2019, killing thousands of freshwater mussels.
