Clam Lake Canal

In 1873 the Clam Lake Canal was constructed between Big and Little Clam Lakes, present day Lakes Mitchell and Cadillac. Lumbering was the major industry in the Clam Lake area, and sawmill owners needed an efficient means of transporting timber to the mills and railroad sites in Cadillac. Two years earlier George A. Mitchell, a prominent Cadillac banker and railroad entrepreneur, and Adam Gallinger, a local carpenter, formed the Clam Lake Canal Improvement and Construction Company. The company dug the canal at the narrowest point between the lakes through land owned by Mitchell. The channel is one third mile long and was originally twenty feet wide. It has been widened at least six times, most recently in 1965, and is presently forty eight feet wide. Today the channel serves the area’s recreational boaters.