The Ford Lake Dam (originally known as the Rawsonville Dam and sometimes referred to as the Hydro Dam) is an earthen, multi-arch

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. ...

and powerhouse 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 ...

in Ypsilanti Charter Township in

Washtenaw County Washtenaw County () is a county located in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, the population was 372,258. The county seat is Ann Arbor. The county was authorized by legislation in 1822 and organized as a county in 1826. Washtenaw ...

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 constructed in 1931–1932 and created the Ford Lake reservoir at . The Ford Lake Dam is downstream from the Peninsular Paper Dam and upstream from the

French Landing Dam and Powerhouse The French Landing Dam and Powerhouse is a hydroelectric gravity dam and powerhouse crossing the Huron River in Van Buren Charter Township in Wayne County in the state of Michigan. The dam and the powerhouse were completed in 1925 by the De ...

. The dam is approximately from the Huron River's 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 ...

. The dam and powerhouse were commissioned by

Henry Ford Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist, business magnate, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production. By creating the first automobile that mi ...

in order to supply electricity to the nearby Ypsilanti Ford Motor Plant. In 1969, the dam and surrounding land area were given to the city of Ypsilanti and surrounding township. The township took full ownership in 1990 and maintains control of the facility. The dam has a maximum spillway capacity of 28,000 cubic feet per second (793 m³/s). The south embankment of the dam contains an emergency

fuse plug A fuse plug is a collapsible dam installed on spillways in dams to increase the dam's capacity. The principle behind the fuse plug is that the majority of water that overflows a dam's spillway can be safely dammed except in high flood condition ...

spillway. The area surrounding the dam's output is organized into two parks operated by the township. The North Hydro Park is part of the

Border-to-Border Trail The Border-to-Border (B2B) Trail is a partially constructed non-motorized trail in Washtenaw County, Michigan. The trail is planned to cover approximately from Livingston County to Wayne County along the Huron River. In thirteen segments fro ...

. Along with the adjacent, undeveloped South Hydro Park, the area is popular for shore fishermen and canoeing/kayaking along the Huron River to Belleville Lake.

References

{{US-dam-stub Dams in Michigan Hydroelectric power plants in Michigan Huron River (Michigan) Dams completed in 1932 Energy infrastructure completed in 1932 1932 establishments in Michigan Buildings and structures in Washtenaw County, Michigan