The dam created a reservoir which supplied water to the Atlantic stamp mill which extracted copper from ore-bearing rock.

A system of spillways, sluices (or launders as they are referred to in contemporary texts), and pipes brought water downhill to the stamp mills.

These options ranged from repairing the steel and wooden dams for $311,000 to restoring/reconstructing the entire structure for over a million dollars.

The upper 13 feet of the wooden structure was removed in 2004 to bring the water level down and relieve some of the pressure.

by a team of students from Michigan Technological University determined that both dams are likely to remain safe for the foreseeable future.

This transmits force to the ground without the bending moment that a vertical wall of plates would engender.