As the Otter Tail River runs through downtown Fergus Falls, its westerly flowing waters fall about 95 feet. During his 1848 geological survey of Minnesota, David Dale Owen described this stretch of the river.

“At a sudden turn in the river we unexpectedly came upon turbulent rapids. Our canoes shot down them with a velocity that was impossible to arrest. It soon ran the canoes hard and fast among the rocks at a spot where the water reached the armpits of the men.”

Many early Fergus Falls industries grew up along the banks of the river. A series of dams utilized the swift current to provide power for flour mills, a saw and woolen mill, a wagon factory and other businesses.

East of the town center was another dam to power municipal utilities and electricity. That dam was tragically the epicenter of the city’s great man-made disaster.

During construction of the City Dam in 1907, the contractor reported digging into natural springs, warning the city this could be a potential problem. The warning was ignored and construction continued. Shortly after completion city workers reported the operating floor was always wet. Apparently the seeping water had dug a hole under the dam to the point that at 4:30 a.m. on September 29, 1909, the dam simply cracked apart sending a torrent of water toward the city. Basements on the south side of Lincoln Avenue were flooded with five feet of water while the other dams were severely damaged. No one was injured although City Dam operator Ben Snyder described his narrow escape.

“I ran so fast you could have played cards on my shirt tail!”

The ruins of City Dam are now part of Fergus Falls Broken Down Dam City Park.