The left portage is much shorter but very steep and offers no facilities; take out at the steel platform to climb over the concrete dam fence.

Loud owned most of the lands on the Au Sable River from Mio to Oscoda prior to selling them to the power company in 1909.

Loud retired after helping to promote the Au Sable River hydro-electric power development and he and his wife bought and developed Loud Island, a 30-acre summer retreat in the heart of Van Etten Lake just two miles from the shores of Lake Huron, near the city of Oscoda, in northeastern Michigan.

[5] The Daily News in New York City said (Jan 20, 1952, pg 71), "one of the last of Michigan's lumber kings, died today."

The original installation is still intact including the two Allis-Chalmers horizontal turbines and two General Electric generators each producing 2,000 KW, 2,500-volts, and operating at 120 R.P.M.