The Story of McCloud/McCleod Dam – Tatum Treland
Here is a short story about McCloud’s Dam (we are not sure on the spelling of this as it is not marked on any maps we can find).
If you’ve ever driven your boat into Musky Bay, you’ve gone by the old dam…. Yes, it’s located in the old river channel that runs from Musky Bay, around Darrow Island and past Cletcher’s Bar.
Before the Chippewa Flowage was formed, the harvesting of the White Pine’s was big business. One of the rivers used to float logs down to a mill to be processed was the North Fork of Chief River.
At this turn in the river a dam was constructed to back up the water to allow for more logs to float in, the McCloud Dam.
So the next time you come cruising into Musky Bay and you see that small grassy island, try to imagine what it may have looked like as an old river channel, and imagine the “River Pigs” driving the logs down the river to the mill.