Forestville Dam Falls
The Dead River is penned up in five separate dams as it flows east to Lake Superior. Some of these dams do not have any waterfalls formed from the overflow, or if they do, they are small and tamed by artificial means. Forestville Dam is an exception.
An outflow pipe empties a short height below the top of the reservoir onto jagged rocks, churning a short distance before plunging suddenly down into a rugged cut of rock. While a penstock takes some of the river’s flow further downstream to the power station there is still a large amount of water flowing over the falls. A huge spur of rock in the middle of the river makes it difficult to view this waterfall directly from the river banks.
Directions
Two ways lead to this waterfall. The easier way is to park off of Wright Street, about 1.2 miles north of US-41, by a gated two-track leading down the hill by a lot of power lines. Follow the two track downhill, turning left with the road when you reach the penstock. Crawl underneath the penstock when you near the dam, preferably just before passing the sitting water on the left side of the road, and head upstream on the rocky island to view the falls. Note: Wright Street Falls can be seen by following the penstock right instead of left.
A better, though more dangerous view, can be seen from the other side of the river. A few ways work here, one of the more scenic routes starts 1.6 miles north of US-41 off of Wright Street. Park here at the gate and follow the dirt road over the Dead River and past the brick power station. Continue on the dirt road to the large sandy area. Climb this and head left with the power lines, veering right with the trail before running back into the river (note: some of these paths going left meet up with the paths near Wright Street Falls). The path will run roughly parallel to the Dead River with the bank always on your left side and will end at the Forestville Basin. A small wooden bench sits here with views overlooking the dam. Head down the crumbling rock bank to get different angles of Forestville Dam Falls.
Photographs
Visits
Seen in April.
Last year we had approached from the south, and I had to shimmy under a dripping tar penstock to see the drop. There had to be a better way. The view from the north bank was rather interesting. The overflow pipe was dumping water onto a rocky bluff, where the water pooled and streamed for a dozen feet before dropping out over the falls; this almost seemed like an attempt to make the waterfall look natural and was pretty neat. There was a rocky knife that blocked the bottom half of the falls from this bank, so I had to crawl down the crumbling bank and circle downstream a bit for a better view.
The dam holding back Forestville Basin was huge and imposing, a giant structure of cement reaching from one rocky bank to another. On the southern bank an overflow shot water out in a full flow and let it run down some rocky formations to form an artificial waterfall. Getting to it meant wiggling under the penstock, a narrow gap over ice too skinny for Logan to follow under, and I collected some penstock tar sliding back.
Comments
1 comment
There’s a nice wooded trail that leads from the Wright Street Falls up to the Forestville Dam Falls. The Dead River will always be on your right along the trail when headed to the dam. For it still being rather early in the tourist season, both sites were pretty busy with hikers and fishers when we visited on 4/27/24.
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