The Flat Rock Dam is a decommissioned

hydroelectric Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined and ...

gravity dam A gravity dam is a dam constructed from concrete or stone masonry and designed to hold back water by using only the weight of the material and its resistance against the foundation to oppose the horizontal pressure of water pushing against it. ...

crossing the

Huron River The Huron River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed November 7, 2011 river in southeastern Michigan, rising out of the Huron Swamp in Springfield Township in north ...

. It is located in the city of Flat Rock in Wayne County in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

. The dam was built by the

Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobi ...

in 1924 for hydroelectricity for the nearby

Ford Motor Company Lamp Factory The Ford Motor Co. Lamp Factory in Flat Rock, Michigan, was the product of a unique collaboration between industrialist Henry Ford and his lead designer, Albert Kahn. Albert Kahn Associates is a large Detroit firm that did extensive early and gro ...

, which remained in operation until 1950.

Location

The Flat Rock Dam is about from the Huron River mouth at

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has t ...

. It is the last sizable dam along the Huron River. The Huroc Dam is located about downstream, and it is a much smaller dam used for

flood control Flood control methods are used to reduce or prevent the detrimental effects of flood waters."Flood Control", MSN Encarta, 2008 (see below: Further reading). Flood relief methods are used to reduce the effects of flood waters or high water level ...

. The river remains unobstructed after the Huroc Dam. The French Landing Dam is upstream. When the dam was completed, the resulting flooding created a reservoir of . The reservoir has no official name but is generally referred to as the Flat Rock Pond or the Flat Rock Impoundment. The dam itself is not accessible to the public, and a railway bridge mostly obscures the view of the dam. While the reservoir is mostly inaccessible due to private land ownership and a lack of public access points, the area immediately south of the dam has been organized into a public park known as Huroc Park (sometimes spelled Hurock Park) on an artificially created island within the Huron River. A pedestrian bridge leads to the island and crosses the very small Huroc Dam, which is sometimes erroneously referred to as the Flat Rock Dam itself. The dam is currently owned by the Huron–Clinton Metropolitan Authority. The

Oakwoods Metropark Oakwoods Metropark is a park in the Huron-Clinton Metroparks system, located along the Huron River near Flat Rock, Michigan. The park consists several miles of bike trails, numerous nature trails, horse trails, a canoe and kayak launch, and a Natu ...

division is located further upstream along a portion of the reservoir and is connected via trail to Huroc Park.

Fishing

The immediate downstream area of the Flat Rock Dam is very popular among shore fishermen. The

Michigan Department of Natural Resources The Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is the agency of the state of Michigan charged with maintaining natural resources such as state parks, state forests, and recreation areas. It is governed by a director appointed by the Governor a ...

stocks ten-of-thousands of

rainbow trout The rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') is a species of trout native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in Asia and North America. The steelhead (sometimes called "steelhead trout") is an anadromous (sea-run) form of the coasta ...

along this stretch of river leading to Lake Erie. While the majority of trout exit into the lake, some return to the area for spawning. In 1997, a

fish ladder A fish ladder, also known as a fishway, fish pass, fish steps, or fish cannon is a structure on or around artificial and natural barriers (such as dams, locks and waterfalls) to facilitate diadromous fishes' natural migration as well as movemen ...

was constructed at the dam to aid fish in spawning further upstream. Other fish within the Huron River at this point include

northern pike The northern pike (''Esox lucius'') is a species of carnivorous fish of the genus '' Esox'' (the pikes). They are typical of brackish and fresh waters of the Northern Hemisphere (''i.e.'' holarctic in distribution). They are known simply as a ...

walleye The walleye (''Sander vitreus'', synonym ''Stizostedion vitreum''), also called the yellow pike or yellow pickerel, is a freshwater perciform fish native to most of Canada and to the Northern United States. It is a North American close relat ...

large Large means of great size. Large may also refer to: Mathematics * Arbitrarily large, a phrase in mathematics * Large cardinal, a property of certain transfinite numbers * Large category, a category with a proper class of objects and morphisms (or ...

and smallmouth bass, silver bass,

channel catfish The channel catfish (''Ictalurus punctatus'') is North America's most numerous catfish species. It is the official fish of Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, and Tennessee, and is informally referred to as a "channel cat". In the United States, the ...

bluegill The bluegill (''Lepomis macrochirus''), sometimes referred to as "bream", "brim", "sunny", or "copper nose" as is common in Texas, is a species of North American freshwater fish, native to and commonly found in streams, rivers, lakes, ponds and ...

, sunfish, and

black crappie The black crappie (''Pomoxis nigromaculatus'') is a freshwater fish found in North America, one of the two types of crappies. It is very similar to the white crappie in size, shape, and habits, except that it is darker, with a pattern of black sp ...

Coho salmon The coho salmon (''Oncorhynchus kisutch;'' Karuk: achvuun) is a species of anadromous fish in the salmon family and one of the five Pacific salmon species. Coho salmon are also known as silver salmon or "silvers". The scientific species name i ...

tiger muskellunge The tiger muskellunge (''Esox masquinongy × lucius'' or ''Esox lucius × masquinongy''), commonly called tiger muskie, is a carnivorous fish, and is the usually-sterile, hybrid offspring of the true muskellunge (''Esox masquinongy'') and the no ...

, and sheephead can also be found leading to the lake. The Flat Rock Impoundment has a single listing on the state's Master Angler Entries documented by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. The fish listed is a smallmouth bass measured at caught and released in 2007.

Health concerns

The Huron River is occasionally issued a "Do Not Eat" fish advisory by the

Michigan Department of Health and Human Services The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) is a principal department of state of Michigan, headquartered in Lansing, that provides public assistance, child and family welfare services, and oversees health policy and management. ...

when the waters accumulate high levels of

cyanobacteria Cyanobacteria (), also known as Cyanophyta, are a phylum of gram-negative bacteria that obtain energy via photosynthesis. The name ''cyanobacteria'' refers to their color (), which similarly forms the basis of cyanobacteria's common name, blu ...

and perfluorooctanesulfonatecan (PFOS). When this bacteria is present, prolonged contact with the water is not advised, although occasional contact with PFOS is not considered a health concern. Fishermen are advised to

catch and release Catch and release is a practice within recreational fishing where after capture, often a fast measurement and weighing of the fish is performed, followed by posed photography as proof of the catch, and then the fish are unhooked and returned ...

only, and warning signs are posted at river access points. While the Flat Rock Dam and its reservoir are usually not specifically mentioned, the advisory is often issued for long stretches of the Huron River that include the Flat Rock Dam portion leading to the river mouth at Lake Erie.

Gallery

File:Huroc Dam (Michigan).jpg, File:Flat Rock Pond fish ladder.jpg, File:Flat Rock Pond (Michigan).jpg,

References

{{Reflist Buildings and structures in Wayne County, Michigan Dams in Michigan Dams completed in 1924 Energy infrastructure completed in 1924 1924 establishments in Michigan Huron River (Michigan) Dams with fish ladders