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Mottville Dam, Michigan

Mottville Dam on the St Joseph River in Michigan.

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41.805541, -85.749937 · St. Joseph County · NID MI00187. Tap the map to open this water in the live app.

What the runs do here

St Joseph River carries no anadromous run on our corridor map, so this page makes no claim about salmon or steelhead at this dam. What it sits on is coldwater — resident trout water — and the section below says which classification says so.

The structure

Owner
Indiana & Michigan Power Company Public Utility
Purpose
Hydroelectric, Recreation
Completed
1920
Type
Gravity
Height
23 ft
Length
846 ft
Spillway
Controlled
Storage
4,256 acre-ft · 378 acre pool
Drainage
1,866 sq mi
Condition
Fair · High hazard potential
Status
Under Remediation

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

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

GaugeDistanceTempFlow
Portage River at Fifth Avenue at Three Rivers, MI 11.6 mi 63.0 °F 194 cfs
Spring Creek at Rambadt Road near Centreville, MI 16.5 mi 60.1 °F 10 cfs
Dowagiac Creek at Dutch Settlement Rd Nr Dowagiac, 17.9 mi 59.4 °F 43 cfs

Live from USGS. A gauge miles away is a gauge miles away — the distance column is there so you can discount it. A hydro dam's releases move the flow below it on a schedule the gauge sees and this page does not.

Getting to it

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

The river this is on

Open this water on the map →Every reach around it coloured by today's water temperature, with the access points along it.