Kirkpatrick Dam

The Senator George Kirkpatrick Dam and the Rodman Reservoir were built in the 1960s as part of the Cross Florida Barge Canal, and the dam became a site of conflict even before its foundations were built. Its construction was a blow to canal opponents, and after the canal project was permanently canceled in the 1990s, environmentalists sought to open the dam, empty the reservoir, and restore the free-flowing Ocklawaha River. Senator Kirkpatrick, for whom the dam was named, continued to defend the reservoir and repeatedly thwarted efforts to open the dam. Every few years, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection lowers the reservoir's water level in drawdowns that improve water quality and help control invasive aquatic plants, revealing a ghostly forest of cypress stumps drowned by the reservoir.

Florida · United States