Quote:The pictures here today are of the hydroelectric plants and pipes along the Dead River in Marquette County. In far west Marquette County the Dead River flows into the Silver Lake Basin which does not have a hydroelectric plant and is used primarily for water storage and flow control. From the Silver Lake Basin the Dead River next flows into the Dead River Storage Basin, which is the largest basin along the river. Flowing through the Hoist Dam hydroelectric plant (in the second photo), the Dead River next flows under the new CR510 bridge previously featured on the Pasty Cam, and into the McClure Storage Basin. Below the McClure Dam is where it gets interesting. Some of the water from the McClure Storage Basin is discharged into the original Dead River stream, while some water is diverted 13,302 feet, through a 7 foot diameter, steel pipe riveted at all joints, to the McClure hydroelectric plant (shown in the first photo). Here the water discharged from the plant is emptied back into the Dead River. The Dead River then continues to the Forestville Dam where again, some water is passed into the original river bed while some water is diverted though a 3/4 mile long wood pipe (my pipe pictures) to a penstock. From the penstock the water flows through two steel pipes into the Forestville hydroelectric plant where the discharge flows into the Dead River. The last stop before entering Lake Superior near the Presque Isle Plant in Marquette is the Tourist Park Dam which is currently being reconstructed. As you probably know, the Tourist Park Dam and its small hydroelectric plant were put out of commission by the Silver Lake Dam failure back in 2003.
