Dam Like Structure on Eight Mile Lake

[gnibmilc]

Does anyone know and care to share information on the rock and cement structure on Eight Mile Lake? It appears to have been built with buildering in mind...complete with a few surprises.

[erik]

i think it is used to control the flood of water into the icicle, so that they may keep the temps down later in the year for fish. also prolly have something to do with the lworth drinking supply.

 

but i dont really know.

 

 

[klenke]

Was there a fish ladder?

[Sphinx]

BEAVER!

[gnibmilc]

btw eric, there is a fine adventure route up the buttress on the SE side of eightmile...4th class+, much of it very clean...hundreds of feet up...

[Bronco]

I've seen that dam and run across similar ones near old mining claims but, it also could have been used for lumber operations or possibly providing irrigation on a homestead located nearby in the "old days".

 

Or some pirates burried a treasure under it!

[Tod]

There are also dams on Colchuck Lake and Snow(?) Lake (where the trail crosses the lake outlet). I believe these dams were built so that a reservoir of water could be stored in the Icicle Creek drainage in order to supply water for the aqueduct that you can see in the lower Icicle Creek canyon. I think the dams and the aqueduct were built in the early to mid 1900's so that farmers in the Leavenworth valley would have a consistent supply of water. You can see the aqueduct from the road near the Snow Creek trailhead and the trail crosses over it shortly after leaving the trailhead.

[catbirdseat]

I had heard that the dam was part of mining operations. They used hydropower then. Probably channelled the flow to a pelton wheel which turned a dynamo for electricity and possibly an air compressor for the rock drills. I have no idea where the prospects were. I've never seen any mine shafts.

[Crackbolter]

I don't know about 8-mile lake and it's history but I know why the pipe was installed at the gap between Nada and Snow Lakes. It was used to pipe cool water to the Wenatchee River Fish Hatchery in Leavenworth. In it's day, it was the largest hatchery is the western US and possibly the entire country. After the Boneville Dam was built, it took a huge toll on all of the migrating Salmon and Steelhead up the Columbia River. None of the fish were able to swim up the Columbia River and the populations diminished to very few. After efforts were made to help the salmon continue up the Columbia by trucking the fish above the dam, it still was not enough. The first attempt to restore the fish population was to start a hatchery using water from the Icicle River. In the peak high temperatures of summer, the hatchery suffered trumendous loss due to warm water diseases. It was then when the hatchery decided to obtin water from the upper reaches of snow creek and pipe the cool water all the way down to Leavenworth.

Now that we have electric refrigerators to cool water for the hatcheries, we no longer need the piped water from Snow Lake.

 

Does anyone know if any efforts have been made to remove the scrap metal and debris from the talus field or should we expect it to continue to rust and contaminate Nada Lake?

[erik]

actually crack

 

the fish hatchery has just completed a phase in restoring the icicle to a more natural state(albeit homes and the such of course) the removed all structures between the hatchery and the wenatchee river. so maybe they are making some progress, but i doubt nada, snow lake will occur ever. consider it a relic of the past. as the use of heavy equipment is obviouslyt against the law in the wilderness area and without helo support or massive amounts of manual labor the metal will always stay. per a fish hatchery employee.

 

 

[Dru]

if it was for placer mining there wouldnt be a mine shaft now would there....

[Dru]

erik said:

actually crack

 

the fish hatchery has just completed a phase in restoring the icicle to a more natural state(albeit homes and the such of course) the removed all structures between the hatchery and the wenatchee river. so maybe they are making some progress, but i doubt nada, snow lake will occur ever. consider it a relic of the past. as the use of heavy equipment is obviouslyt against the law in the wilderness area and without helo support or massive amounts of manual labor the metal will always stay. per a fish hatchery employee.

 

 

dynamite

 

boom! no more damn dam

[cappellini]

the snow lake setup is designed to keep temps down in the icicle for the hatchery...they boost snow creek about 15 cfs...old technology......now they use groundwater to raise fish, hence temps are not an issue...so it is somewhat obsolete except that it inadvertantly augments flows to offset the irrigation withdrawls...all other damns on lakes in the icicle watershed belong to the icicle irrigation company...they siphon the majority of the water out of the icicle when natural flows have diminished in late july, august and september...they have water rights to 100 cfs....leavenworth drinking water only has water right s to 3 cfs....typically there is much less than 100 cfs in the creek after the irrigation company sucks the life out of the creek....so the answer to the real question is yes, destroy all of the structures in the icicle relating to icicle irrigation withdrawls and the swimming will be much better below their intake and in the wenatchee near my house.......

[JoshK]

Is dynamite allowed in the wilderness areas?

[Bug]

JoshK said:

Is dynamite allowed in the wilderness areas?

Yes. So is heroin.