Skeleton Lake dam at the fish hatchery

The dam located at the south end of the lake where the lake enters into the Skeleton River/Bent River and has a long history. It apparently was first built by the white pine loggers in the 1870's to get their logs past the rapids with the least amount of damage during the spring log drive. Augusta Briese rebuilt the dam around 1884 to power his sawmill which was located right at the mouth of the river. This dam was again rebuilt when the Province built the fish hatchery in 1939 and was a timber dam with removable logs, some being  removed each fall to drop the level of the lake, then reinstalled in the spring to bring the lake to its prescribed level. Around 2000, this dam was replaced with a spill-over style dam with a fixed level. I believe there is a bypass that allows a minimum amount of water to flow into the river during the low flow in the summer to keep the river alive.

The first photo is the dam in 1958, photo courtesy of the Ministry of Natural Resources, the second is the current dam in 2006, photo taken by Pat (Cassan) Reese.