The Birth of Ford Lake

Ford Lake was born early in the Depression, and here was one of the first steps: closing the old north-south Tuttle Hill Road then crossing what is now the middle of the lake. The old Tuttle Hill Road that once crossed over the river now crosses the Ford Lake lakebottom, traveled only by carp--or long since covered in ooze.

It happened this time of year in 1932: this article is from the May 8, 1932 Ypsi Daily Press. Construction of a temporary coffer dam had taken place the previous October. Once dammed, the level of Ford Lake rose slowly over the spring, summer, and early fall of 1932.

Take a look at the original Tuttle Hill Road and its little bridge over the pre-Ford Lake Huron River. This plat map is from 1915. The area where the river meanders back and forth, and a section downstream from that, is the region referred to in the above article as the "flats." Old Tuttle Hill Road is marked in pink. Farmlands belonging to members of the Tuttle family, ancestors of whom were landowners here from the earliest days of county settlement, are marked in yellow.