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Homestead Dam, Michigan
Homestead Dam is the top of the Betsie River run — 4 anadromous species stack below it out of Lake Michigan.
Open in BirdTrout44.595, -86.08 · Benzie County · NID MI00761. Tap the map to open this water in the live app.
What the runs do here
Homestead Dam is the anadromous ceiling for the Betsie River — the top of the run out of Lake Michigan. Fish moving up from the lake stop here, which is 12.5 miles of river below this structure.
| Species | In the river | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Chinook salmon | Aug–Oct | Fish stage off the harbour through August and enter as the river cools; the run peaks in October. |
| Coho salmon | Sept–Nov | Overlaps the chinook run and holds later; peak October and November. |
| Steelhead | Oct–May | Two runs on one calendar — a fall push from October that winters in the river, and the spring run that peaks March through April. |
| Lake-run brown trout | Sept–Nov | Runs with the salmon and stays after them; peak October. |
Curated calendar guidance from state run-timing prose, not regulation and not an observation of this river on any day. MDNR run-timing guidance and Michigan Fishing Guide prose, curated.
Ceiling cited as: EGLE Michigan Dam Inventory, DamName 'Homestead Dam', River 'Betsie River'
The structure
- Owner
- MDNR Fisheries State
- Purpose
- Recreation
- Completed
- 1979
- Type
- Other
- Height
- 14 ft
- Length
- 110 ft
- Spillway
- Uncontrolled, 59 ft wide
- Storage
- 1,800 acre-ft · 15 acre pool
- Drainage
- 159 sq mi
- Condition
- Satisfactory · Significant hazard potential
From the National Inventory of Dams (USACE). Hazard potential is a downstream-consequence classification, not a statement about the structure's condition.
The water above and below
- Betsie River 0.4 mi from the dam · Cold transitional small river (MDNR VSEC) · typed Cold-transitional
Coldwater designation is the state's own classification. A dam sits on one river and this list is every designated reach within a mile and a half of it, so a tributary mouth shows up here too.
Water right now
No USGS temperature gauge we read reports within 20 miles of this dam, so this page has no live number for it. That is a gap in the gauge network, not a judgement about the water.
Getting to it
- Homestead Dam 0.1 mi · canoe launch · Betsie River
- Us-31 0.9 mi · canoe launch · Betsie River
- Grace Road 1.8 mi · canoe launch · Betsie River
- Crystal Lake Beulah Boat Launch 2.5 mi · walk in
- River Road 2.6 mi · canoe launch · Betsie River
- Crystal Lake 3.7 mi · boat launch · Crystal Lake
Public access sites near the dam, straight-line distance. A dam itself is private property unless its owner says otherwise; these are the places the state lists as open.
Fly shops nearby
- Andy's Tackle Box 20.4 mi · Brethren
- The Northern Angler 25.0 mi · Traverse City · +1-231-933-4730
- Streamside Orvis 25.4 mi · Traverse City
- Hawkins Outfitters 25.6 mi · Traverse City
- Schmidt Outfitters 26.9 mi · Wellston