User:Iazyges/Clam Lake Canal

The Clam Lake Canal (sometimes called the Cadillac Canal) is a man-made 0.33 mile (0.53 km) long canal between Lake Mitchell and Lake Cadillac in Cadillac, Michigan.

Location and history
The Clam Lake Canal, sometimes referred to as Cadillac Canal, is between Lake Mitchell and Lake Cadillac in Cadillac, Michigan, Lake Mitchell was once called Big Clam Lake, while Lake Cadillac was referred to as Little Clam Lake, however, the names of both lakes were changed in 1903. Lake Mitchell now takes its name from George A. Mitchell, a local lumber magnate and founder of the city of Cadillac, Michigan. The two lakes are naturally connected by the Black Creek, a slow and winding course of water that connected the two lakes by means of bisecting a marsh. George A. Mitchell had arrived in the area in 1871 and settled there, on the eastern shore of Little Clam Lake, due in part to the Great Michigan Fire, which had spread across the state, and which destroyed much of the harvesting area for timber, as well as lumber mills of the region, and partly because of the ongoing construction of a northward branch of the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad, which would run south of the settlement by only a few miles. While the railroad company intended to continue the branch between the lakes, towards Charlevoix and Petoskey, Mitchell was able to convince them to curve the tracks sharply to the east, coming within 3-4 mi of Little Clam Lake; at the time, Mitchell was a shareholder of the railroad company, and later served as a director. Mitchell noted that prevailing winds of the region, the Westerlies, blew from west to east over the lakes, and that the Black Creek itself flowed to the north-east, which would aid in the transport of large lumber from Big Clam Lake to the mills established on the eastern shore of Little Clam Lake. He attempted to dredge the Black Creek in YEAR (1872 by math I think) without success, and in 1873 began construction of the Clam Lake Canal, to the south of the failed dredging effort by a few hundred feet.

After the canal was finished, the water level of Big Clam Lake reportedly fell by 1 ft.

The Black Creek still exists, but with a reduced flow; during high-water periods, the creek flows in both directions, with the eastern segment of the marsh draining under highway M-115 into Lake Mitchell, and the western part flowing into Lake Cadillac. Mark Tonello of the Michigan Deptartment of Natural Resources remarks that this is likely due to repeated artificial modifications to the marsh.

The village of Clam Lake was incorporated as a city in 1877, and the name was changed to Cadillac, in honor of the founder of Detroit, Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac.

In the 1920s and 1930s, after many of the lumber mills on the shore closed down, the valuable shoreline acreage was devoted to the community, with a 2 mi2 northeastern portion of Lake Cadillac converted to the Keith McKellop Walkway and a park.

The canal is now owned by the Mitchell State Park as of 1919.

The Michigan Historical Commission named the canal a Michigan State Historic Site in March of 1989, due to its significance to the growth of Cadillac. A historical marker was laid down in June of 1990 on the eastern end of the canal, providing information on its history.

The connection provided by the canal is used now for fishing, sailing, and waterskiing.

Environment
Lake Mitchell is roughly 2,580 acre in size, with patches of aquatic cabbage weed covering about 2,000 acre of the surface; almost the entirety of the lake, more than 95%, is less than 15 ft deep. Lake Cadillac is 1,130 acre, of which 400 acre is covered by weeds; about half of the lake is shallower than 15 ft.

The lakes feed from the large wetlands surrounding them, and studies have found that the lakes take roughly a year to recycle their water, comparable to a slow river flow; this makes them comparatively cleaner than many of the other inland lakes in Michigan, as most require a minimum of ten years for a full water cycle.