Flagstaff Lake was a smaller natural lake when the Long Falls Dam impounded the Dead River in 1950, enlarging the lake and turning it into a reservoir used for hydropower electricity production by regulating the flow of the Dead River into the Kennebec River. At the time, the river drive was still a primary means of delivering timber to the pulp mills downstream. Improved highways and the trucking industry have replaced the river drive.
Construction was controversial dating back to 1923, pitting the president of Central Maine Power Company, Walter Wyman, against state legislator and future Maine governor Percival Proctor Baxter. Flagstaff Lake occupies parts of the abandoned and now submerged townships of Flagstaff, Bigelow, Dead River and Carrying Place.
The dam is 45 feet high, 1339 feet long at its crest, and consists of a 450-foot concrete spillway, a 125-foot-long concrete section containing five 20-foot-wide Taintor, a 70-foot-long concrete section containing two Broome gates, a fishway, and a log sluice, and a 694-foot-long earthen dike. The dam is owned and operated by NextEra Energy, but no electricity is generated here. The dam is operated to regulate and augment flows that are used by nine downstream mainstem Kennebec River hydropower projects, and to control flooding.
Read more about this topic: Flagstaff Lake (Maine)
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