Edenville Dam

Edenville Dam

Edenville Dam was a dam owned by a "County Delegated Authority," the Four Lakes Task Force,[1][2][3] in Gladwin County, Michigan, about one mile north of Edenville. The dam was mostly in the southeast corner of Tobacco Township in Gladwin County, but its most southeastern end reached into the northeastern corner of Edenville Township in Midland County. The earthen gravity dam was built in 1924[4] for hydroelectric power and for flood control.[5] The height is 54 feet, the length is 6,600 feet (2,000 m) at its crest, and it impounds both the Tittabawassee River and its tributary the Tobacco River.

The dam was built by Frank Isaac Wixom, after whom the reservoir formed by the dam is named.[6] Wixom used to own a circus before he built the dam.[7]

The dam used to be privately owned and operated by Boyce Hydro Power, a company based in Edenville, which also used to own three other hydroelectric facilities on the Tittabawassee: the Secord, Smallwood, and Sanford Dams.[8] In a rarely used Federal power, the FERC terminated Boyce Hydro Power's license in 2018, because of its "inability to pass the Probable Maximum Flood (PMF),"[9] as well as seven other failures.[10] The Federal government was concerned that "the dam may not have the ability to pass enough water, if a severe flood were to hit, among other issues and violations."[11]

The Four Lakes Task Force purchased the Edenville Dam and its reservoir, Lake Wixom, as well as three other dams, in 2019 for $9.5 million