From the Road
The Keweenaw needed a constant and dependable source of water to quench this industrial thirst. In order to meet that need, dozens of dams were built all over the copper country, blocking up streams and creeks along the way. Most of these were small endeavors, made from earth, timbers, or masonry. There was however a few dams that were a bit more ambitious. In the copper country two of these immense structures remain – Victoria and Redridge.
The Trestle
After reading the marker, we take a trail that moved further into the woods. As we followed it we hoped that it would bring us to the dam. Instead, it brought us to another trail, this one apparently an old rail grade. Knowing a rail line once topped the dam, we followed it instead. Our assumptions were proved correct as we soon found ourselves face to face with a makeshift fence, built out of barbed wire and old rails. Ahead of us an old railroad trestle spanned the ravine.
Steel Dams
Steel dams were an experiment in dam construction that had a very short life in the United States. Steel dams work under the premise that steel construction offers substantial savings in material and labor costs compared to concrete or masonry construction. The Redridge dam was relatively cheap to build, costing only $150,000. The dam also took very little time to build, construction lasting only a year. A standard type dam on this river would have cost more to build and taken much longer to complete.
Into the Superstructure
As we quickly dropped down into the river gorge the roar of the river ( and the rumble under our feet ) became more pronounced. The light of the day disappeared as we arrived at the bottom, and as we walked forwards we could see why. The trees parted in front of us and we were assaulted by a rising wall of steel. We peered up towards it’s apex, some thirty feet above our head. Its oppressive bulk managed to block out most of the sun from above, leaving a dark and mysterious labyrinth of steel in its shadow – which we hastily entered.
The Second Dam
There are actually two dams built on the Salmon Trout River. When there was but one stamp mill on the red-ridged shores of Lake Superior, a smaller and less technically advanced structure was used to dam the river. When the newer dam was built years later, the old dam was submerged under the waters of the newly formed reservoir, and subsequently forgotten. It wasn’t until a good forty years later when Copper Range compromised the steel dam by cutting holes in its superstructure that the original dam was once again revealed.