This year, an exciting anniversary is happening as we celebrate 100 years since the French Landing Dam and Powerhouse were completed and Belleville Lake was created.

From 1905 through 1908, Gardner Stewart Williams (GSW), a consulting engineer from Ann Arbor, in contract with Detroit Edison, completed a geological survey of the Huron River Valley. His work proposed six hydroelectric dams along the Huron River: Barton (1913), Argo (1914), Geddes (1919), Superior (1920), French Landing (1925), and Ford Rawsonville (1932). The fifth dam, located at French Landing in Van Buren Township (VBT), would flood the valley around the village of Belleville, creating a 1,270-acre reservoir known as Belleville Lake.

On March 2, 1908, GSW finalized his proposal, estimating the cost to be $100,000 for construction and $75,000 for purchasing the land and flowage rights. Under Alex Dow, vice president and general manager, Detroit Edison accepted the proposal and authorized GSW to begin preparations. Frank Hobart Clark (FHC), president of the People’s State Bank of Belleville, acted as his real estate agent, aiding him in purchasing the necessary land between Rawsonville and French Landing.

Every property that would be flooded needed to be sold, otherwise the plan would fail. This fact became a real difficulty when the final property’s owner held out. In the summer of 1923, negotiation with Mrs. Anna Jacox, widow of David Jacox and property owner on the northern ridge of the valley, was lasting longer than anticipated. Alex Dow, now the president of Detroit Edison, became frustrated and sought a new location for the dam. GSW suggested moving it to Belleville, upstream from the Jacox property, and naming it “Clark Dam,” in honor of his friend FHC. In a letter to GSW on August 20, 1923, Dow agreed to switch locations. However, on February 16, 1924, due to a change of mind or terms, the Jacox family agreed to sell the land and the dam was ready for construction at French Landing.

Construction officially began at the French Landing in June of 1924. However, the plan wasn’t simple. The whole project included the construction of four bridges, three causeways, several culverts, dikes, ditches, embankments, a Wabash Railroad spur, a large cement mixing plant, and a home for the caretaker, George Tedder. In addition, the construction camp, including temporary lodging and a water tower, was built at French Landing as a resource for the construction workers for the remainder of the project. Construction of the dam itself included the powerhouse, two spillways, a fish ladder, an arch dam with six arches, western earthworks, and a tile drainage system. All of this and more was completed in less than 10 months.

Not all the work was done manually. They used horses, bulldozers, trucks, and steam-powered equipment. On top of that, they installed a railway system for carting dirt and equipment around the flat areas. The construction team under contract was with the Federal Construction Company based in Detroit. The initial timeline anticipated they would finish within six months, a far too unlikely hope.

New bridges and causeways needed to be installed to accommodate the lake. The old North Bridge over the Huron River on Belleville Road was replaced with a new two-lane steel bridge referred to locally as “The Blue Bridge.” The project began on June 18, 1924, and took eight months.

After its completion, the bridge served as the central route for crossing Belleville Lake for 70 years. In 1995, Belleville needed a wider bridge to accommodate traffic, and it was moved to Burroughs Street in Lowell, Michigan, where it still serves the public today.

The Cemetery (Denton) Road Bridge was not replaced. Instead, they had to raise the iron structure onto new abutments. The abutments, designed by GSW and his firm, Ayres, Lewis, Norris, and May, were constructed with timbers driven into the ground by a steam-powered pile driver that would pound them into the earth. A form was then built on top and filled with concrete. The Cemetery (Denton) Road project was finished by February 10, 1925.

In 1948, the iron bridge was replaced by a steel bridge supported by the 1924 abutments and two new concrete piers. The latter bridge remained an integral part of Belleville’s traffic until it was closed on September 30, 2022, because the timber pile began to deteriorate. These timbers are only now, 100 years later, being removed by the team from E. C. Korneffel as they build the new Denton Road Bridge.

In November 1924, Chase Road was raised at Spear Gully, which was named for Spear Farm, owned by Joseph and then Hiram Spear. Today, Spear Gully drains under I-94.

Finally, Haggerty Road was rerouted and a new causeway and culvert were constructed for the bridge. The culvert is used today as an entry point for small boats on Belleville Lake.

The construction teams worked through the entire winter and the whole project was approaching its finale. In March 1925, the French Landing Dam and Powerhouse were almost finished and Belleville Lake was filling fast. That is . . . until April 13, 1925. With a crash heard from miles away, the dam gave out and washed away a fourth of the west earthen embankments, causing flooding at speeds of approximately 10 miles an hour.

In a mere few hours, five billion gallons of water had passed through the breach. All traffic was halted in the area for fear that the bridges for the road and railway would be at risk. Flood damage occurred as far downriver as Flat Rock. By the end of the day, Belleville Lake was gone.

By September 1925, the lake was filled and the powerhouse was operating. Until it was decommissioned in 1962, the dam generated up to 12.7 kilowatt hours of electricity. The French Landing Dam was then only used to maintain the lake level and the deed to the property was eventually transferred to VBT for $0 on December 26, 1973.

It stayed out of commission until October of 1988, when STS Hydropower of Northbrook, Illinois became a co-licensee with VBT to complete the dam restoration project. Since then, the French Landing Dam has been restored and maintained as an energy source to this day.

In 2009, a survey showed that 2,592,000,000 gallons of water passed through the dam in 24 hours, which produced 40,000 kilowatts of power, enough to power 2,400 houses for a month.

So next time you turn on your lights, drive over a bridge, or boat on the lake, remember the engineers and construction workers who labored a century ago and those who work hard to maintain the dams and bridges today.

For more information on the French Landing Dam, the creation of Belleville Lake, or the history of the Belleville Area, email Mary Utz at bam@vbtmi.gov.