Cheboygan dam threatened by rising water as flood emergency widens across Michigan

Crews in Cheboygan spent another night adding pumps, stacking sandbags and using a crane to remove dam gates as the Cheboygan Lock and Dam Complex on the Cheboygan River came within 4.92 inches of overtopping. What began as a local emergency on April 10 spread into a wider flood crisis as rising water, ice damage and levee failures pushed evacuations beyond the dam itself and into surrounding parts of Cheboygan.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer declared a state of emergency for Cheboygan County on April 10 and activated Michigan’s State Emergency Operations Center the same day. State officials said record snowfall in March, recent rain and rapid snowmelt drove the water level up fast. A large piece of ice also damaged safety wire near the dam, and by April 10 the water was about 18 inches below the top. By April 12 it had climbed to within 15 inches, and by April 16 it had narrowed to less than five inches.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources said the risk remained high enough to keep expanding the response, especially with up to 2 inches of rain forecast. Officials closed access points upstream and downstream, brought in more pumps and worked with a crane to remove gates and increase outflow. Crews also explored refiring a previously damaged hydroelectric generator at the privately owned power facility in the complex to move more water through the system.

The danger was not confined to the dam. Nearby levee and watershed failures in the Little Black River area triggered evacuations in parts of Cheboygan, showing how one stressed structure can ripple through roads, homes and utility corridors. Officials said few people were in immediate danger below the dam, but the evacuation zone included infrastructure critical to northern Michigan, including a U.S. Energy fuel terminal.

The Cheboygan Lock and Dam Complex is itself a layered piece of old infrastructure, with ownership split between the state and a private operator. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources owns the dam, which was built in 1922, while the adjoining hydroelectric plant is privately owned and regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The Cheboygan Lock, built in 1869, remains part of Michigan’s Inland Waterway system, a 35-mile route authorized by the River and Harbor Act of 1954 that links Conway to Cheboygan and Lake Huron.

Whitmer called the crisis a “slow-moving disaster” and said Michigan was in “crisis mode.” The warning reaches well beyond one county: aging dams, deferred maintenance and fragmented oversight can turn hidden infrastructure into a statewide emergency with little margin for error.