Below Croton Dam: the last free-flowing run of the Muskegon River

The Muskegon River spends most of its length backed up behind dams — Croton, Hardy, and a chain of impoundments above them. Then, right below Croton Dam east of Newaygo, it gets to be a river again. From the tailwater there it runs free and undammed all the way to Muskegon Lake, and that last 47-mile stretch is where the fish are.

What makes it work is gravel and cold water. The dam’s outflow scours the streambed below it down to solid gravel — exactly the kind of bottom trout and salmon need to spawn — and Consumers Energy now runs Croton as a “run-of-river” operation, meaning it passes water through at a steady rate instead of slamming it up and down with demand. Steady flow and cool, dam-bottom water keep the river hospitable through the summer, when a lot of Michigan rivers get too warm and low.

The payoff is a fishery that draws people from across the Midwest. Steelhead — Lake Michigan rainbow trout that run upriver to spawn — push up to the base of Croton in spring and fall. Chinook and coho salmon come through in their seasons, and the river holds resident brown and rainbow trout year-round. The water just below the dam stacks up boats and waders shoulder to shoulder when the runs are on.

It’s a strange thing to thank a power company for, but the same dam that blocks the fish from going farther is the reason the water below it stays cold and clean enough to hold them. Stand on the gravel below Croton on a gray October morning and watch a fresh-run salmon roll in the current, and the whole arrangement starts to make sense.