THE EAGLE LAKE DAM - BAR HARBOR

NEW EAGLE LAKE DAM

October 23, 1895
Bar Harbor Record

Water Company to Build New One At Eagle Lake

The Bar Harbor Water Company has submitted plans to contractors for estimats for its building of a new dam at Eagle Lake, 400 feet in length, to suppliment the present dam, which has become too small for th growing necessities of the population of Bar Harbor.  The necessity of a larger dam in order to retain in greater quanity of water as well as to prevent leakage, has been patent to the officiers of the company for some time, and at a recent meeting it was decided to build the proposed dam in this fall.  It is their intention to begin work as soon as the proper bid for the work has been made.
If the weather is favorable they intend to have the dam completed before the winter sets in.  Civil Engineer Freeman C. Coffin, of Boston, who drew the plans to this new dam roughly estimates that from May to October the loss of water by evaporation, in Eagle Lake, is fifteen ibches.  The average daily consumption for Bar Harbor is about a million gallons, which with the evaporation would reduce the water in the lake about 24 inches, from May to October.
A measurement of the water to Eagle Lake this fall, showed that the lake had fallen 4 feet 8 inches during the summer.  Thus, deducting the average evaporation and consumption, it will be seen that there has been over two feet leakage.  It is as much to prevent this leakage as to retain more water, that the company proposes to build the dam.
The new dam will be built about 40 feet inside the present structure, and will extend 400 feet in length, with a water-way in the center and with an average heigth of six feet, and width of three feet.  There will be an embankment of earth on each side and covering the top.  The base will be forty feet wide and the top about twelve.  The inner slope of the dam will be covered with six inches of broken stone, and above this will be a layer of paving.  Should the water in the lake rise too fast to prevent work, or should the weather prove too unfavorable, the work will not be started until next fall.
Besides this, the company proposes to lay a line of eight inch pipe to Hulls Cove, from Eden Street, a distance of nearly three miles.  This work will be begun about the same time as the dam with the hope of finishing it before the cold weather sets in.  The building of the costly summer residences at Hulls Cove, and the tendency to build in that direction  has enduced the company to build in that direction has enduced the company to make this outlay at this time.
The Bar Harbor Water Company is to be congradulated for its enterprise and progress in these local improvements.  Bar Harbor has already one of the finest water systems in the state, considering the population, and this addition will make it bigger and better then ever.


NOTE;  one of the interesting things I learned from researching the building of this dam was that before the dam was built, Eagle Lake had a nice sand beach.  When the water level rose from the new dam the beach ended up under water as the size of the lake was increased, which resulted in law suits, one below was filed by Mary Curran over the loss of land by the enlarging of the lake.




LEGAL NOTICE
Mary Curran
April 7, 1897
Bar Harbor Record

On this date a Legal Notice was placed in the paper stating that Mary Curran was seeking damages for loss of property as a result of the Bar Harbor Water Company building a dam on Eagle Lake, which resulted in the rise of the water level of the lake, which resulted in her lossing a good size section of land.  It states that because neither Mary Curran nor the Bar Harbor Water Company could not come to an agreement as to what her damages was, a judge was being asked to step in and come up with an amount which she should be paid.  The land in question was the site of Curran House, the property left to her by the death of her hsband, Nick Curran.

Below is a second Legal Notice which appeared right below the above the top notice, but much easier to read so I am posting it in two parts as it appeared in the paper;