West Grand Dam Grand Lake Stream Area
Passamaquoddy oral traditional stories and archaeological finds reveal the presence of Wabanaki People in the West Grand Lakes area for thousands of years before present. See 1990 Prehistoric Sites Report
In the early 1800’s a timber crib dam was constructed across the outlet at the West Grand Lake to store water for log transport to the sawmills along the lower St Croix river. Early timber crib dams were crude structures and were later rebuilt.
Location 45°10'52.91"N 67°46'41.43"W
1810 West Grand Dam first built (timber crib). Rebuilt in 1836, 1906 Thoroughly rebuilt in 1928 Reconstruction done in 1972, 1981, 1991, 2003
West Grand Dam floods 10 lakes above the dam. Each lake differs in area and elevation.1 The lakes within the 23,500 acre impoundment: 1. Scraggly Lake 2. Keg Lake 3. Bottle Lake 4. Junior Lake 5. Junior Bay 6. Norway Lake 7. Pug Lake 8. Pocumcus Lake 9. Horseshoe Lake 10. West Grand Lake
West Grand Dam A. Is 487 feet long B. Is 13.3 feet high C. Is an earth and concrete dam D. Includes a 106-foot-long concrete spillway E. Has a crest elevation of 304.33 feet m.s.l. F. Has five wooden gates G. Has a 213-foot-long earth and rip-rap embankment with a concrete cut- off wall H. Has a timber-crib cut-off wall I. Has a 2-foot-high wave barrier J. Has a 168-foot-long earth and rip-rap embankment K. Has a 24-foot-wide vertical timber and rock-filled cribwork fishway. 2
West Grand Dam is operated in a seasonal store-and-release mode with the elevations of the impoundments fluctuating on an annual basis to supplement low downstream flows and provide downstream flood protection. This dam has no electrical power generation facility, but its operation contributes to power generation at Woodland Pulp's unlicensed Grand Falls and Woodland Hydroelectric Dams downstream.
There are two separate dikes associated with the West Grand Dam impoundment on the lake. Both dikes help maintain high water levels by preventing water from flowing out of West Grand Lake. These dikes are located at Farm Cove and Bonney Brook.
The Farm Cove Dike: 535-foot-long 15-foot-high Earth and rock-filled embankment Includes a 10-foot-wide timber and rock-filled cribwork fishway It is located approximately 3.5 miles northwest of West Grand dam at the head of Little River
The Bonney Brook Dike: 250-foot-long Earth and rock-filled embankment It is located approximately 1.3 miles northeast of West Grand dam at the head of Bonney Brook. 3
Other historical information related to West Grand Lake and Grand Lake Stream:
Atlantic Salmon are native to the St Croix and have been known to spawn as far up in the watershed as the Grand Lake Stream between Big Lake and West Grand Lake.
1868 A fish hatchery was built at West Grand Lake as a joint operation by Maine and Massachusetts. The hatchery was taken over in 1872 by US Commission.
1870 The Shaw Brothers build a tannery in Grand Lake Stream. It was at one time the largest tannery in the country. Hides from as far away as Texas arrived by steam ship at Calais and then transported by railroad to Princeton where the lake steamers took the hides to the tannery. Grand Lake Stream and the surrounding area had a natural abundance of hemlock. The bark of the hemlock was boiled to produce tannin, a vital ingredient in the hide tanning process.
1871 April 25, the Shaw Brothers begin erecting the largest tannery in the United States at Grand Lake Stream. The building is to be 100 by 600 feet in dimensions and will contain 1,200 vats.
1871 May 2, five million board feet of lumber was run through Grand Lake Stream in 3 days by the St Croix Log Driving Co. 4
1874 The Shaw brothers purchased Hinkley Township (Grand Lake Stream). It is where they built a large tannery, lumber mill and some houses. Shaw brothers sold one hundred quarter-acre house lots for $25 dollars each and operated steam boats on West Grand Lake and East Grand Lake.5
1883 the Shaw tannery closed briefly as a result of financial problems. The tannery reopened and continued in business until 1898.6
1883 The following is from the Bangor Industrial Journal:
“The tannery complex [at Grand Lake Stream] was built on a blasted site stripped bare of forest. The sawmill came first, followed by a bark mill, leach house, furnace house, the six-hundred-foot tan-yard building, and ten-story dry loft, a roll loft, the underground beam rooms and sweat houses, and support buildings. Nor should we overlook a 350-yard canal, huge penstock, locks, scows, and steamers.
As the tannery grew, a scraggly village materialized, while, out in the woods, hundreds of men with horses peeled, stacked, and hauled thousands of cords of bark. Many of the construction workers were Quebec French. The regular workers were mostly Provincials, along with an assortment of other nationalities. Entire families shared single rooms. Wages were low, but newly arrived hopefuls worked out their keep on a farm owned by the Shaws while awaiting an opening. There was no paint, inside or out. A big company store salvaged as much of the payroll as possible.
The village was landscaped with boulders, stumps, and rubble, and the stream, polluted by sawdust and filth. Carts laden with reeking beam-room refuse, intended for fertilizer, dripped and slopped along the rough roads, distributing the bounty far and wide.
Drunkenness was common, yet violence and serious crime were rare. There was no law officer and no doctor, and the seriously injured or ill often suffered several days before professional help arrived. A proposed railway to the tannery was never built, and transporting the hides in and out over the phenomenally rough road, or by the old steamer Captain Lewey, to Princeton, was not an efficient arrangement.7
1897 Report of the Joint Fisheries Commission. Upstream of the West Grand dam there were many log driving dams in the streams that flowed into the lakes. These smaller dams had no fishways.8, 9
1914 Fish blocking screen trade-off. When construction began for the Grand Falls Power Dam the Maine Fisheries Department and St Croix Paper Co. entered into a verbal agreement not build a fishway at the Grand Falls dam. Instead, as a less expensive trade-off, the paper company would only have to pay $5,000 for the construction and installation of a fish screen to be built up- river at West Grand Lake. This screen would block Landlocked Salmon from escaping downstream. As a result of this agreement there was no fish passage at the Grand Falls Dam (no fishway) for 40 years until 1965 and the West Grand Lake fish screen blockage was in place for 100 years.
1922 The fish screen was installed at the West Grand dam. The cost was $5,000 and was constructed of steel or iron and concrete.
1972 November 10. First day of Fishway operation at West Grand Dam after decades with no fish passage.
Date unknown. State IFW introduced a non-indigenous rainbow smelt species into West Grand Lake to provide a new source of feed for the Landlocked Salmon and Lake Trout. These smelts were larger than the indigenous smelt populations and have multiplied. These smelts have become a predator problem for the Lake Whitefish population and are now at risk in West Grand Lake.10
1980s after the Land Claims settlement the Passamaquoddy Tribe and Penobscot Nation regain portions of their traditional territory located in the West Grand impoundment area. These newly acquired lands are held in trust by the United States for the benefit of the tribes.
2019 April 26, FERC ordered open fish passage for sea-run fish at the West Grand dam. P-2618
2020 January 28 FERC revised order on fish passage at the West Grand dam.
1 Water Resources of the St. Croix River Basin, Maine-New Brunswick, Report on Preliminary Investigations to the International Joint Commission (Under the Reference of 10 June 1955, by the International St. Croix River Engineering Board, September 1957, page C-13, Internet Source at http://www.ijc.org/files/publications/O1.pdf
2 FERC Notice of Availability of Final Environmental Assessment of Woodland Pulp LLC Project Nos. 2618-020-ME and 2660-024-ME, January 20, 2015, pg vii.
4 Let Me Live As My Ancestors Had 1850-1890, Tribal Life and Times in Maine and New Brunswick, Donald Soctomah, 2005, (pg 81)
5 Let Me Live As My Ancestors Had 1850-1890, Tribal Life and Times in Maine and New Brunswick, Donald Soctomah, 2005, (pg 107)
6 In the 1897 it was reported that there were 4 tanneries in operation in the St Croix watershed in Vanceboro, Forest City, Princeton and Grand Lake Stream. For a period of time it was the custom for tanneries to dump waste products directly into the water. Waste products included salt liquid from soaking skins, lime liquor used to swell skins and loosen hair, waste tan liquor, tan bark after leaching, water used to wash skins after scraping and removal from tan vats. Enormous quantities of tan bark as well as foul fleshings were dumped into the water injuring spawning beds of landlocked salmon and brook trout. Within a few years tanneries stopped dumping bark, flesh and hair into the river. Due to the tannery waste in the river below Grand Lake Stream and Vanceboro
the lnad-locked salmon have disappeared in these locations. See Report of the Joint Commission Relative to the Preservation of Fisheries in Waters Contiguous to Canada and the United States, Available on the Internet at https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/113813#page/36/mode/1up, Obstructions and Pollutions, Tanneries, page 17
7 St Croix Historical Society web page http://stcroixhistorical.com/?p=1164
8 Report of the Joint Commission Relative to the Preservation of Fisheries in Waters Contiguous to Canada and the United States, Submitted December 31, 1896, Printed by Order of Parliament, Ottawa, Printed by S. E. Dawson, Printer to The Queen's Most Excellent Majesty, 1897,
9 Ibid Report of the Joint Commission,
10 Lake whitefish and rainbow smelt are known to have overlapping life histories, having pelagic fry, juveniles that are found near the bottom of the thermocline and adults that dwell near the lake bottom. Speculation that declines may be associated with rainbow smelt interactions has been supported by several scientific findings. This species is in decline. See the Whitefish Management Plan, DIFW Fisheries and Hatcheries Division, David J. Basley, 2001 (pg 6) http://www.maine.gov/ifw/fishing/pdfs/whitefish.pdf