Taming the Tahquamenon River

James McMillan and John S. Newberry founded the Detroit, Mackinac and Marquette Railroad, and after completing it the company looked for ways to develop properties it owned along the route. On October 6, 1880, the railroad created the Tahquamenon River Improvement Company. In 1880, Daniel Farrand Henry surveyed the Tahquamenon River for the railroad company, and his report and map laid out the work needed to improve the river, including cutting away the crest of the dam at the upper rapids to lower the water upstream from the big falls. In 1883, the Tahquamenon River Improvement Company completed the removal of 16,000 cubic yards of sandstone, including a small waterfall from the riverbed, in a $41,000 project meant to make the river suitable for navigation, prepare it for log drives, and deepen it to drain thirty square miles of company-owned swampland.

Michigan · United States