Ford Dam Open as River Rises

This story was published by The Ypsilanti Press of Tuesday, May 2, 1933. With five sluice gates open two wheels running and nine inches running water over the top of the Ford dam at the power site, the Ford Motor Company is carefully watching the water condition in the rainy period which stated Saturday. A height of 685 feet above sea level is maintained at the dam and water reaching a higher altitude than this is useless to the plaint. When 685 feet of water was attained Sunday night the sluice gates were opened to let the water go down the river. Locally the river reached its peak Monday, when the water came up to the railroad tack which curves along the river bank to the plant. Rain of last night and today has served to increase height of the river. A singular manifestation of Sunday’s storm took place on the William Wiard farm in Ypsilanti Township, on Wiard Road south of the Ecorse highway. The Wiard household had watched six or seven maples and evergreens being uprooted on the Archie Freeman farm owned by Henry Ford, and then saw the funnel shaped cloud cross the field toward the house and barn on the Wiard property, a loud noise accompanying its course. It suddenly changed its direction and went like a whirlwind through a pool of water, catching the water up and carrying it into the air 500 feet it was estimated by members of the family. It then went on across the Ecorse Road. Fish are scattered over the near-by field.