Beaver Dam Lake Diversion – Cumberland WI

Description

Surrounding the city of Cumberland, Beaver Dam Lake (or Che-wa-cum-ma-towangok, “Lake Made by the Beavers”) is both the deepest lake in Barron County and had served as a hub for the sawmills in the area since 1880. Testimony by engineer K.C. MacLeish to the Wisconsin Public Service Commission revealed that by August 10, 1936, the elevation of Beaver Dam Lake had dropped from normal levels of approximately 96.0 feet to 85.8 feet.

At MacLeish’s recommendation, the Wisconsin PSC approved a Works Progress Administration to widen an old diversion ditch from nearby Duck Lake to help raise the level of Beaver Dam Lake. As early as 1888, logging companies had dug a small ditch from the southern side of the Duck Lake, just southwest of its natural outlet, through Little Mud Lake and emptying into Norwegian Bay, on the northeastern side of Beaver Dam Lake. With $1304 in federal funding, in 1937 WPA workers widened the canal to between 5 and 10 feet wide at the bottom, providing a capacity of 75 cubic feet per second into the northeast corner of Norwegian Bay on the eastern side of Beaver Dam Lake. The workers also replaced a single pipe that ran under the farm-market highway with two 36-inch pipes, allowing any water that ran over 91 feet of elevation to enter Beaver Dam Lake.

The canal ran through private property: from north to south, the estates of John Lundstrom and Albert Johnson, as well as the residents Herman and Margaret Butkeraitis, each granted an easement “for the purpose of improving, maintaining, and operating the canal for the purpose for which it is to be improved” (PSC 1938, 19). Today the ditch outlet is located on Cumberland city property and is part of a fish refuge established by Wisconsin state law.