Lake of the Woods Vacation Area Guide

WRITER’S NOTE: We’ve all heard them, those apochryphal stories of how the level of Lake of the Woods changed after the building of the dams at the north end. The water went up three feet, nine feet, twelve feet. Meadows became marshes. Mainland became islands. Islands disappeared. Here, we look back and try to literally get to the bottom of this.

November 8, 1895 – Special Agent A.F. Naff of the United States government arrived at the scene of the investigation, Lake of the Woods. His assignment ? To ascertain whether the construction and maintenance of dams at the north end of the lake had resulted in raising the lake level to such a degree as to cause the flooding of lands at the south end.

Before his arrival on site, Naff had done his homework. A sizable dossier of background material, compiled by the General Land Office, was tucked into his travel case. Detailed information about the rollerway dam constructed at the western outlet of Lake of the Woods into the Winnipeg River was supported by signed statements of the need for water level regulation by those with navigational interests. All this was filed next to angry letters of complaint from residents who claimed that the resulting raised water level had damaged valuable land.

Exceptionally low water in the early 1880s had wreaked havoc with the navigational and industrial interests on Lake of the Woods. In a letter, dated October 7, 1884, this matter was brought to the attention of the Ministry of Public Works:

The water of the Lake of the Woods, during the past few years, has been gradually decreasing, and is now so low that the lumbering and other manufacturing interests are seriously interfered with, and the general business and prosperity of the place is retarded.

It was suggested that the outlets at the north end of the lake be dammed in order to raise the lake level and improve the water power possibilities. It was three years before a solution and agreement were reached. In the spring of 1887, John Mather, a principal in the Keewatin Lumbering and Manufacturing Co. and the Lake of the Woods Milling Company, agreed to construct a dam at the western outlet provided that $7,000 of financial assistance be provided by the government. During the following winter, a rollerway dam was built.

For those at the north end of the lake, the dam and its effect on the lake level were key to the commercial development of the area, which, at that time, was centred primarily around Rat Portage (now Kenora). There was little development along the lake’s south shore. Even by 1900, Warroad consisted of only a few temporary buildings, a couple of saloons, a barber shop, restaurant, general store, hotel and little else.

However, those settlers who had taken up land on the south shore were outraged by the damage that had been done by the altered lake level and hounded their government to do something about it.

Dealing with the matter from his office in the Department of the Interior in Washington, DC when the lake in question was several states away seemed ridiculous, so Naff set off to see for himself.

Unfortunately the lateness of the season hindered his work. November wasn’t exactly the ideal month to be launching an inquiry into lake levels. With the ice starting to form Naff had difficulty getting around in a boat. Several times he went through the ice into the frigid water in his attempts to make the necessary observations. His efforts to walk along the icy shore from the south end, up to the Northwest Angle, and then to Rat Portage were also thwarted. His guide deserted him after five miles of tramping, and finding no one else who would venture across with him, he ended up turning back and taking the train to town. In spite of the setbacks, he managed to interview several lake residents and recorded their observations on the altered lake level.

Chief Maypok of Warroad was the first to render his signed affadavit on November 12, 1895:

I am about 49 years of age and have lived at Warroad Indian Village, on the South shore of Lake of the Woods, all of my life. I have been all over the Lake of the Woods and especially along its South shore and am well acquainted with it as it is now and as it has been over twenty years past. I know that within the past eight years the water has been raised several feet on the said lake from some cause. I have never kept any measurement of the rise of the water but know that at one time I could walk on the beach of the original lake shore all the way to Rainy River on the East and to the Northwest Angle on the West and North. Trees and bushes were at that time, eight years ago, growing along this original beach but are now broken and fallen down and lying in the water. The water extends inland from one-half mile in some places to as much as two or three miles in other places… The land that is overflowed around the shore as above mentioned is good rich land and at one time had fine crops of grass on it which made good hay. My understanding is that the dam built by the Canadians at the outlet of the lake has been the cause of the water rising in the same. I know that a short time after they commenced building the dam the water commenced rising.

Sixty-year old Pash-te-tu-wa-scung of Manitou Falls related similar observations:

I have traveled over the lake in a birch bark canoe and have walked along the beach on the South shore from Buffalo Point to Rainy River on the sand where it is now covered three or four feet with water… I have seen where timber once stood, water covering the logs and stumps and spreading out in every direction so as to destroy hay meadows, islands, and other low grounds of much value. I can notice that all this change has come over the lake within the last eight years… This overflow has been caused by the dam that was built at Rat Portage.

Sam Whiting, resident of Rat Portage since 1880 and captain and pilot on Lake of the Woods, stated that in the summer of 1880 the water was 6 feet lower than it was after the dam was put in across the western outlet in 1888. However, he also noted that between 1880 and 1887, the water rose as much as 3 feet from natural causes. He estimated that the dam brought about a 2-1/2 to 3 foot increase in water level based on observations taken from landmarks around the lake.

Lumberman D.C. Cameron’s estimate of the increase was more conservative:

I have been out on the Lake of the Woods more or less in connection with my lumbering business and in a general way I am familiar with the said lake and its conditions and changes on the 12 years last passed… I think the old dam has had the effect of holding the water up at least two feet higher, in the Lake of the Woods, than it would be if the dam were entirely away.

When Naff finally reached Rat Portage he investigated the rollerway dam himself. He found it to be intact, although the top portion had been washed away. He also inspected the new Norman Dam, located about a mile below the rollerway. It consisted of two sets of masonry piers and sluices, joined by a rock hill. Naff found that in its present state it would not affect the level of the lake.

It was not until 1898 when stoplogs were placed in the sluices that the Norman Dam was used to regulate the lake level. It then replaced the old rollerway which was dismantled in May of 1899. Still each dam was thought to have raised the level three feet about the natural level. This then begs the question ? what was the natural level of the lake?

Naff’s published report provides no empirical data, just his observations and those of the lake people with whom he conducted interviews. He concluded that the stage of the lake was “an abnormal one” and “the source of much dissatisfaction” by settlers at the south end of the lake. In the end, no action was taken by the U.S. government as a result of the investigation.

Following the completion of the Norman Dam at the western outlet and later the Kenora power plant at the eastern outlet of the lake, their potential effect upon the lake level again came to the attention of the American government. That’s when the International Joint Commission (IJC) stepped in.

The purpose of this international body, composed of three members appointed by the U.S. government and three by the Canadian government, was to examine and resolve disputes between the two countries. The water level debate on Lake of the Woods was a case in point.

In 1912, the IJC was assigned the task of examining water level regulation on Lake of the Woods and it’s in their research that we find some answers and confirmation.

Their method of examining the issue was considerably more in-depth and data-based than Naff’s previous study. Hearings were held both in Warroad and Kenora. Evidence was taken from those in industry who were dependent upon water power and water depths for navigational purposes, steamboat captains, lumbering interests, railway managers, and miners. Agricultural and fishing interests were also heard.

Through the summer of 1913 and 1914, extensive field operations were conducted to determine the location and amount of low lying lands that might be affected. A survey of boathouses and docks were done. Wild rice fields were charted. High water marks were examined.

Recorded water levels at various points around the lake were gathered, standardized, compared, and rated according to reliability. From those, mean lake levels were plotted from 1892 to 1915.

Taking into consideration the seasonal fluctuations of the lake level, the extremes depending on spring run-off and other factors, even the effect of wind on gauge readings, what was found was that the average controlled level of the lake was 1059.75 feet at sea-level datum. The average computed natural level (i.e. before the construction of the dams) was 1056.72 a difference of 3.04 feet.

Granted there were extremes, and perhaps it is from those that tales of a 12 foot difference have arisen. Steamboat Captain Frank Hooper recorded in his notes dramatic fluctuations in lake levels before the construction of the dam. He noted that in the spring of 1876 the water level was the highest he had ever seen it and this was confirmed by Hudson’s Bay Company workers and First Nations people. In the following season of 1877, “the water was low in the spring but rose in June to within six inches of the high water mark of the summer of 1876 but went down the latter part of the summer to about 7 feet below the high water mark of the summer of 1876.”

Once lake levels were regulated, the IJC found the extremes to have averaged out at about 5.82 feet, in the years between 1893-1915, varying between a high of 1062.37 (in 1900) and a low of 1056.55 (in 1894). These results were published the year before the flood of 1916, when the lake level reached 1063.57.

Given the data and facts compiled by the IJC and confirmed by the personal observations of those that lived and worked on the lake prior to and after the construction of the dams, a three foot increase seems to be the most accurate estimate of the lake level change.

For more info visit www.lwcb.ca and www.ijc.org

By Lori Nelson