New Lake Loramie Spillway - Dave’s Midwestern Ohio Memories

A Series of Guest Blogs by an out-of-state Fish Report reader originally from this area about fond memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s.

New Lake Loramie Spillway

The Lake Loramie spillway dam, pictured above, is being reconstructed by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. I’m not sure when the original was built, perhaps in 1844 when the Loramie Creek was dammed up to feed the Miami-Erie canal documented in this past blogpost. As kids, we would climb all over that 220 foot long spillway and also fish in the downstream catch basins. In those days, we never had spinning reels; instead we used cheap cane poles that could be broken down into several pieces just like the vintage cane pole pictured on the left being sold on eBay recently. The line, bobber and stringer were wrapped around the cane pole pieces and attached to the side of our bikes for the ride to the lake. We’d find worms for bait under rocks around the base of the spillway, and keep anything we caught, mostly yellow-bellied catfish, on the stringer which was hung from the handlebar of the bike for the short ride home.

In later years, the walkway above the 23 foot high spillway was beyond repair and closed permanently. I do distinctly remember riding my bike across the spillway many times. That and a thousand other things we did as kids would be considered taboo today, but back then, we were adventurers, always pretending to be Danial Boone or my favorite, Davy Crockett.

In order to remove the old spillway, a temporary earthen and stone structure called a cofferdam had to be constructed to keep water from entering the existing spillway area as shown in the photo below. Also, a temporary pumping system was added to bypass water downstream around the dam to facilitate drainage and any excess flow. This allowed the area around the old spillway to eventually dry up so demolition and dam reconstruction could occur.

Construction on the new dam is underway as shown in the May 10th photos below. The new dam, due for completion in the spring of 2018, will be of a totally different design than the old spillway and will meet all the latest design standards. For more information, click on this recent Sidney Daily News article.

The ODNR has placed signs around the construction zone reminding Park visitors to stay clear of all work sites at the spillway. At my age, I’ll heed their warning, but if I were 10 again.....