Hardy Hydroelectric Plant

About this property

Hardy Dam (or Hardy Hydroelectric Plant) is an earth-filled embankment dam and powerplant complex on the Muskegon River in Big Prairie Township, Newaygo County, Michigan. At the time of its completion, it was the largest earthen dam in North America east of the Mississippi. Its impoundment forms a lake with over 50 miles of shoreline. The dam impounds a reservoir with a surface area of 4,000 acres (1,618 ha) and its power plant has an installed capacity of 31.5 MW. After considerable investigation and planning by Consumers Energy in the 1920s, construction on the Hardy Dam began in 1929. It was designed by William G. Fargo and construction was carried out by his company, Fargo Engineering. Large amounts of concrete were placed into the foundation as solid bedrock was not present, particularly in the streambed. Allied Engineers began constructing the power plant in the autumn of 1929. In August 1930 the Muskegon River was diverted through the power plant penstocks and away from the dam construction site. The embankment of the dam was filled by March 1931 using the semi hydraulic method of construction. About 1,500,000 cu yd (1,100,000 m3) of sand and gravel was used in the dam. Both the dam and power plant were complete by the end of 1931. Construction was carried out under the direction of Edward M. Burd, the head of civil engineering for Commonwealth Power Corporation, a subsidiary of Consumers. The dam and power plant are named for George E. Hardy, a financial partner with Anton G. Hodenpyl. Hardy and Hodenpyl (who also had a dam named after him) oversaw the Commonwealth & Southern Corporation holding company that Consumers Energy, was part of from 1910 through the 1920s. A serious flood in September 1986 raised the reservoir 8 ft (2.4 m) above the emergency spillway. Water seeped through joints and underneath the spillway creating voids that were later filled with grout. Hardy was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on Dec. 1, 1997. The listing notes the Spanish Colonial architecture of the powerplant buildings, including the oil house, intake, dormitory and powerhouse. In December 2008, the rehabilitation of Unit 3's Francis turbine began. The original 10 MW runner was replaced with one which increased the unit's installed capacity by 1.5 MW. Unit 3 entered back into service on 3 March 2009. Constructed from 1929 to 1931, on a site once known as the Oxbow, the Hardy Hydroelectric Plant was built by Consumers Power Company. The plant was named for George Hardy, a partner in the firm that financed Consumers' projects from 1911 through 1928. The complex includes a Spanish Colonial Revival-style powerhouse and intake tower, an oil house, and a dormitory. It originally included four operator's houses on the eastern bank of the pond, which were Sears-Roebuck kit homes. Due to advancements in fossil fuel steam generating plants, this was the last conventional hydroelectric plant built by Consumers. The Hardy plant is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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