Anyone notice the lake level was lower than normal this summer?
Dam after repairs.
The concrete dam at the end of Little Chocorua Lake was deteriorating and needed to be repaired, so the CLC removed a couple of boards this summer to lower the water level and enable repairs to be made.
John Roberts and his crew working on the dam in October.
John Roberts and his crew repaired the dam in October, and the lake level has returned to normal.
Chocorua Lake was originally two or three feet lower than it is now, and there was a large expanse of rocky beach in front of the Grove. The lake had wide, muddy shorelines in the summer. Much of the so called Second Point was out of water, and it was difficult to get boats and canoes under the Narrows Bridge at the south end of the lake.
Shortly before 1900, Charles P. Bowditch built the first dam, of wood, at the narrow passage between Third Lake and Fourth Lake. It was later replaced with another wooden dam at the present location, at the outflow of Fourth Lake. By the 1960s, the wooden dam had badly deteriorated and needed to be replaced.
Banner: Dam before repairs.