Sanford's comeback: the lakes are filling again

If you’re looking at lake property in northern Midland County, know that you’re catching one of Michigan’s best comeback stories mid-chapter. After the dams gave way in May 2020 and drained the chain of lakes along the Tittabawassee and Tobacco rivers, locals refused to let “lake bottom” become permanent. A community-led group, the Four Lakes Task Force, took over the dams and has been rebuilding them one by one ever since.

The milestones are real now. The rebuilt Sanford Dam was substantially complete in early 2026, and on April 15, 2026 the gates closed and Sanford Lake began to rise again — the plan calls for normal summer levels in a matter of weeks. Smallwood and Secord are scheduled to follow as their dams wrap up, and Wixom Lake, the largest job, is targeted to return around spring 2028. Check the task force’s site for the current schedule before you buy on any of the four lakes — but the direction is unmistakable.

The village of Sanford itself, in Jerome Township, never waited. Its flooded downtown was rebuilt within a couple of years — new storefronts, new park space, the Sanford Centennial Museum’s historic village, and the Pere Marquette Rail-Trail still rolling through town toward Midland’s Tridge. The lake is coming back to meet a town that already did.