Redridge Steel Dam

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Redridge Steel Dam (downstream side)
Redridge Steel Dam (downstream side)

Contents

The Redridge Steel Dam is a steel dam across the Salmon Trout River in Redridge, Houghton County, Michigan. Completed in 1901, it is a flat slab buttress dam constructed of steel, a relatively rare material for construction of dams, which are typically earthenworks or masonry. Most sources indicate it was one of only three such dams constructed in the United States—the other two being the Ashfork-Bainbridge Steel Dam (1898, Arizona) and the Hauser Lake Dam (1901, Montana), the last of which was not successful, failing within a year of construction.

The dam, built at the behest of the Atlantic Mining Company to retain water needed in stamp mill operations to extract copper from copper ore, was designed by J. F. Jackson and built by the Wisconsin Bridge and Iron Company. It replaced an earlier timber crib dam built in 1894. A system of spillways, sluices (or launders as they are referred to in contemporary texts), and pipes brought water downhill to the stamp mills. Apparently the Baltic Mining Company, another firm (with some shared directors on the boards) also on site at Redridge, had shared access to the water.

After the mines ceased operations, the dam owners had the spillway valves opened. However there were incidents of overtopping[1], and the Copper Range Company successor to Atlantic Mine Company, had large holes cut in it in 1979 so that it would not retain water, and the earlier timber dam was exposed[2]. Fears that the timber dam might fail led to the removal of the upper 13 feet of it in 2004. The steel dam has a height of 74 ft (23 m) and extends for a length of 1,006 ft (307 m) across the river.

Redridge Steel Dam (upstream side, showing holes cut)
Redridge Steel Dam (upstream side, showing holes cut)

[edit] Construction information

Steel dams use relatively thin steel plates in contact with the water body, with a framework of steel behind them transmitting the load to the ground. The plates are slanted upwards in the direction of water flow, so that the weight of the water puts compressive forces on the girders holding the plates up. This transmits force to the ground without the bending moment that a vertical wall of plates would engender. It was believed at the time that these dams could be constructed faster and more cheaply than masonry dams.[3].

[edit] Geography and site information

(upstream side) from HAER
(upstream side) from HAER

Redridge is in Houghton County, one of the more rugged counties in Michigan, and access to the dam site is relatively challenging, although there is a history of Michigan Technological University students making pilgrimages to the site, especially those interested in industrial archaeology.

[edit] Historic designations

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ As illustrated in this: overtopping image
  2. ^ The dam in this illustration of the Dam article is actually the earlier timber crib dam replaced by the Redridge Steel Dam
  3. ^ *REYNOLDS, T.S. (1989). "A Narrow Window of Opportunity: the Rise and Fall of the Fixed Steel Dam." Jl Soc. for Industrial Archaeology, Vol. 15, pp. 1-20.
  4. ^ This image (The Redridge ASCE Plaque) of a plaque on the site shows the date of designation

[edit] External links

[edit] Further reading

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