Once upon a time through the mid 1950’s, the water level of Long, Carpenter, and Hemlock Lakes was determined by a marsh situated between Carpenter and Hemlock through which water flowed on its way to Hog Creek. Then in the late 1950’s a channel was dredged from Carpenter behind the marsh directly to Hog Creek along what is now known as Orrin Drive. As a result of this action the water level of the three lakes dropped several feet. Efforts began in 1958 to deal with the problem and by 1963 the issues of how a dam would be funded, what the official water level would be, and where the dam would be located and look like had been determined.

The resultant dam is located at Hemlock Road and Orrin Drive. It is a single piece concrete structure at the base of the Hemlock Road bridge over Hog Creek. It has a spill surface 26 feet wide officially set at 1019.4 feet elevation. There is a steel plate in the dam center with an effective spill width of 6 feet that could theoretically lower the water level 9 inches in drier years of less rainfall. This plate is now welded in place to prevent its unauthorized removal. Some individuals mistakenly believe that if the water was held 9 inches lower, then high water levels in times of flood would also be potential 9 inches lower. To realize why this is a fallacy consider the following:

69,000 acres drain down hill through higher elevation lakes Round, Lime, Beckwith, Suskey, Loon, Berry, Bobby Allen, and Mud before streaming into the combined dam controlled 443 acres of Long/ Carpenter/ Hemlock and exiting Hog Creek.

When there is greater than 6-10 inches of water flowing over the dam, Hog Creek can’t handle the volume and the creek water level rises to the lake water level. Hog Creek’s low flow capacity determines the ultimate height of lake water level during anything close to flood conditions.

Twice in the 1990 decade water levels rose 3 feet higher than the dam in flood conditions and stayed there several days before starting to recede. During those periods Hog Creek overflowed it banks flooding an additional downstream adjacent land surface area equivalent to the size of Carpenter and Hemlock combined. The flooded Hog Creek and additional flooded land were then the same level as the lakes (also up 3 feet) and the dam was completely under water with no influence on the lake levels reached at all.
In conclusion, the dam is reasonably sized for handling water flows that can result in Long, Carpenter, and Hemlock lake levels rising up to 10 inches. For lake levels higher than 10 inches the dam has no impact. Lake levels higher than 10 inches are determined by the low flow capacity of Hog Creek.