Winter has been pretty tame here in West Michigan. Yesterday morning, though, we had a good burst of snow that gave us a few inches and made for a productive photo shoot at the Sixth Street Dam. The first dam in the location was built of stone, gravel, logs and brush in 1844. It was replaced by a wooden dam in 1866, constructed by the Water Power Company. As factories along the river diverted water for their uses, the flow of the river diminished and the water became more and more polluted. The dam was replaced by the current dam in the 1920s, as part of a beautification project. Plans are underway to remove the dam and bring back the rapids for which the city was named. A history of the rapids in the Grand River can be found here.
