:''not to be confused with
Pokegama Lake, Pine County, Minnesota
Pokegama Lake Dam (National ID MN00584) is a dam in
Cohasset,
Itasca County, Minnesota
Itasca County (pronounced eye-ta-ska) is located in the State of Minnesota. As of the 2020 census, the population was 45,014. Its county seat is Grand Rapids. The county is named after Lake Itasca, which is in turn a shortened version of the La ...
, northwest of the city of
Grand Rapids
Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the second most-populated city in the state after Detroit. Grand Rapids is the ...
.
The concrete and timber crib dam was constructed in 1884 by the
, with a height of , and a length of at its crest. It impounds the Upper
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest Drainage system (geomorphology), drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson B ...
for flood control, navigation, and municipal drinking water. Rebuilt in 1936, the dam is owned and operated by the
Mississippi Valley Division
The United States Army Corps of Engineers Mississippi Valley Division (MVD) is responsible for the Corps water resources programs within 370,000-square-miles of the Mississippi River Valley, as well as the watershed portions of the Red River ...
of the Corps of Engineers.
The dam creates a system of connected reservoirs with a total maximum capacity of 120,000
acre-feet
The acre-foot is a non- SI unit of volume equal to about commonly used in the United States in reference to large-scale water resources, such as reservoirs, aqueducts, canals, sewer flow capacity, irrigation water, and river flows.
An acr ...
, and a normal capacity of 82,000 acre-feet: Jay Gould Lake, Cut-Off Lake, and the largest,
Pokegama Lake. The dam is the location of a number of
Minnesota weather records.
Pedestrian bridge
During rehabilitation work in 2011, a new pedestrian bridge was constructed on the concrete footings on the downstream side of the dam, connecting the Pokegama Recreation Area Campground to the south side of the Mississippi River.
See also
*
List of crossings of the Upper Mississippi River
This is a list of all current and notable former bridges or other crossings of the Upper Mississippi River which begins at the Mississippi River's source and extends to its confluence with the Ohio River at Cairo, Illinois.
Crossings Minnesot ...
References
External links
USACE page*
Historic American Engineering Record
Heritage Documentation Programs (HDP) is a division of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) responsible for administering the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), and Historic American Landscapes ...
(HAER) documentation:
** about six dams including this one
**
**
**
{{Authority control
Dams in Minnesota
Reservoirs in Minnesota
United States Army Corps of Engineers dams
Buildings and structures in Itasca County, Minnesota
Dams completed in 1884
Historic American Engineering Record in Minnesota
Lakes of Itasca County, Minnesota