Portage Lake and Lake Michigan weren’t always connected by a channel – it was a man-made accident that made the channel as we know it today. How did it happen? Well, that is a story…

Once the small Portage Creek drained into Portage Lake. An enterprising mill owner, Mr. Stronach, placed a dam on this creek to help his lumber mill operation. Future mill owners would periodically raise the water level on the lake and flood the property of early homesteaders along the shores.

Since these homesteaders were improving their land, they weren’t very happy when lake levels were raised. Push came to shove and by 1871, a small ditch was dug to prevent the water level from being artificially raised. When the water finally let loose through the ditch, you can imagine what happened. Portage Lake dropped almost 14 ft and the small “ditch” became 500 ft. wide and 12 ft deep.