The Milton Wing Dam

What looks like a curving dam is in fact what they called a “Wing Dam,” or a “Crib Dike.”

Before the construction of today's modern locks and dams, thousands of long, narrow barriers were built out of rock and mats of brush. Sticking out from the shore, (and not going all the way across the river), these wing dams narrowed the channel and increased the current, which inhibited  sediment from collecting in the main channel.  

According to the caption on a huge poster of this image in the Jefferson-County -“Oh!-we-wouldn't-have-any-Trimble-County"-Historical- Society in Madison, the dam is still in place, but was submerged with the activation of the McAlpine Dam in 1929.  On the other hand, Frederick Way's S&D Reflector in the June, 1971 issue says it was torn out when the dams went in.

That's Mrs. Herbert M. Flora and daughter sit in the rowboat, as Mr. Flora takes the picture.