GLIMPSE OF THE PAST The Crooked River Lock, Pickerel-Crooked Lakes Association History

The Crooked River Lock was opened in 1968 and serves to control the water levels in our local watershed and the river below the locks. While mother nature and mechanical failures continue to throw ever changing challenges to this Army Corp Of Engineers lock, dam and weir the structure has served us very faithfully for the last 46 years.

The “Pickerel-Crooked Lakes Improvement Association” was formed in 1963 to convince the government that the dredging of the Crooked River by the Army Corps Of Engineers had drained our lakes, altering our shorelines, making our docks useless and reducing navigability. The PCLIA's efforts were successful legislatively, and the design and funding for the locks was initiated with the ACOE. The PCLIA raised $17,000.00 for local matching funds and arranged to purchase the property, on both sides of the river, from Ray and Charlotte Bechtel for the sum of $1.00. Eventually this $1.00 purchase price transferred the property to the United State of America. The project cost was estimated to be $323,000.00, and the PCLIA was asked for an additional $9,300.00 for matching funds. In 1969 the lock was opened and in the first season 9,151vessels passed through the locks.

The lock construction reduced the previous channel width from 30 feet to 17 1/2 feet. The Lock is constructed of concrete and steel sheet piling with stone back filling and is a single chamber that is 66 feet long. The water level is controlled by the synchronized opening and closing of the two “metal clam shell” tainter gates. The gates are mechanically operated with electric controls, and will lower craft from the current level of Crooked lake (approximately 594.5 above sea level) to the level of the river (approximately one to two feet), and allows for vessel navigation up or down the river. The weir is 85 feet long and connects the lock structure to a stone dike on the East side of the river. A 15 foot section of the weir normally controls the river flow with an elevation at 593.5 feet and allows fish to migrate up/down the river. The water level in the lock is 7 feet and is capable of locking multiple boats in a single operation. The environmental specifications allows for impacts on fish and wildlife, benthos(lake bottom organisms), water quality, water supply, wetlands, hydrology, noise or aesthetics. The lock is operated seasonally and the ACOE sets the specifications for water levels. The operations and funding of the locks was originally the responsibility of the ACOE, however the annual funding has had a “storied history” with various government entities sharing the costs (i.e. ACOE, Village of Alanson, the DNR and Emmet County). Today, Emmet County is responsible for the operations, and the ACOE remains the owner for capital repairs; and environmental and navigation policy (due to the Inland waterways connection to the Great Lakes).

The PCLA is a member of the Crooked River Consortium, which includes the ACOE, the DNR, Emmet County, the Little Traverse Band of Odawa, the Village of Alanson and the governments of the four townships that have shoreline on the two lakes. The Consortium will continue in an advisory role to the current entity charged with operating the Crooked River Lock.

References: PCLA historic files, and ACOE final deposition report of 1990, Inland Route Project, Michigan.

January, 2013