Clam Lake Canal
Coordinates: 44°14′21.8″N 085°27′12.6″W / 44.239389°N 85.453500°W
The Clam Lake Canal is a man-made .33 miles (0.53 km) long canal between Lake Mitchell and Lake Cadillac in Cadillac, Michigan. It was made by George A. Mitchell, the founder of the city of Cadillac (as the Village of Clam Lake), in the 1870s. The main purpose of the man-made canal was to facilitate the movement of logs to sawmills. Mitchell was a businessman, merchant, railwayman, lumber baron, and real estate developer who needed lumber to build the village and saw the potential for further sawmill development.
The canal displayed an unusual mystery soon after it was constructed. It was frozen over in the first part of the winter when the lakes on each side of it were unfrozen. Then when the adjacent lakes froze over with thick ice this canal in-between was unfrozen and flowed freely all winter long. It is presently used in the summer time as a recreational boating facility and a passage between the two lakes.
In 1873, George A. Mitchell paid $2,000 ($40,000 today) to purchase a 40 acres (16 ha) strip of land between Little Clam Lake (since renamed Lake Cadillac when the village of Clam Lake was similarly renamed) and Big Clam Lake (since renamed Lake Mitchell, for George's nephew and partner, William W. Mitchell). The strip already connected these lakes via the small Black Creek, which Mitchell envisioned as an efficient transportation route for logs once the canal was contructed.
Mitchell first persuaded the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad to change their original route layout between the lakes to be redirected to go to the eastern end of the Little Clam Lake in the southeast corner of Wexford County, Michigan. He then formed the Clam Lake Improvement and Construction Company and developed a canal there by widening the stream. There was a construction permit taken out as was required by the state of Michigan. Mitchel widened the .33 miles (0.53 km) long connecting stream to some 20 ft or 6.1 m. The main reason for the canal's development was to be able to float logs from one lake to the other and collect fees for the usage of the waterway. The logs were taken to the railroad and sawmills for processing into lumber. The Clam Lake Canal has been widened additionally six times to about 50 ft or 15 m wide and is used in the present time as a recreational passage between the lakes for the local boaters.
...
Wikipedia