Milford's Old Dam and Railroad

Historical information provided by Jonathan Reed

Until a series of floods came along, Old Town Milford was known for its dam and grist mill.

The town was relocated one mile to the north, on the new Milwaukee Railroad line. A series of dams to control water level was repeatedly dynamited over the years by persons unknown. The gateway to the Iowa Great Lakes, Milford thrived as both a farm market and tourist town.

In the early days of Okoboji’s settlement, railroads were literally carving their way through native prairie. While railroad fever gripped Northwest Iowa—When will it come? Will it come through here? Will we get our own station? We want progress! What can we do to bring rail service here?—it was coming at a time when prairie was being acquired, sold off, and sliced-and-diced into farmland.

I heard once in the 1960s about an old timer getting his hair cut in Spirit Lake, and HE had heard from an old timer getting HIS hair cut that if you stood on the roof of Crandall’s Hotel (later, the Antlers Hotel) and looked west, there was but a single cottonwood tree between here and Lake Park. The rest was prairie grasses.

The photo of the outflow dam below Lower Gar from 1911—taken almost 30 years after railroads came through—shows only isolated intrusion of modernity. The rest was prairie.

Take a look at the link below from the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation and learn about their efforts to preserve Iowa’s prairies.

http://www.inhf.org/…/remnant-prairie-a-closer-look-at…/

RIVER MONSTERS IN OKOBOJI

Although frightening-looking from their large size and long snout, gentle paddlefish were regularly pulled from our lakes until about 1916.

Paddlefish require flowing water found in rivers and streams, and likely migrated here by accident from the Missouri and LIttle Sioux rivers. Once permanent dams were built at the outflow to the lakes in the early part of the 20th Century, no more came into our waters.

According to the Iowa DNR, paddlefish are most often collected and seen in the Great Border Rivers; but, it is not unusual for anglers to take them in the lower portion of the Des Moines, Cedar, Iowa and, Skunk rivers. It was formerly rather common, but is now absent in East and West Okoboji Lakes and Spirit Lake.

In the early days, spearing paddlefish was a common means of landing them; you can still pull in paddlefish today in river pools by snagging.

BETWEEN SPENCER AND MILFORD

Thanks to a photo album owned by Mrs. Mildred Richter — Grandma Jim, to Matt Richter — a bit of history became clearer in this photo.

The views seen below looking south shows many changes that have happened at Milford. The Milwaukee Railroad train cuts diagonally across Milford’s main street just south of town. A few of the houses shown here—the new-looking foursquares for example—are still standing today, but barns from the ‘teens or earlier are gone.

The real “aha” comes when zooming in beyond the train. The road seems to end a little south of town and then go to the East. What’s up with that? Where’s Highway 71?

Old Town Milford grew up around a mill that had been built in 1869 along the outflow of the Iowa Great Lakes. Weather changes and a legitimate plague of grasshoppers caused to the mills struggle, along with nearby businesses. Then the Milwaukee Railroad came through in 1882 a mile north and west, so nearly all of the town moved to the present location.

But the roads remained. So to go from Milford to Spencer, you drove south out of town, took a left, and then a right through the old town area. A mile north of Fostoria at the county line, you jogged a third of a mile to the west and met the road from Spencer.

Highway 71 as we know it didn’t align between Spencer and Fostoria and Milford with an improved highway until the 1930s.

Images

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(Thanks to Mildred “Jim” Richter we have a view from the late ‘teens or early 1920s of Milford. and it even shows a Milwaukee Railroad train coming into the Lakes area!)

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(Zooming in, you can see that the town basically ends at the rail crossing. But where’s Hwy 71? The road ends and then jogs to the east.)

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(Only a few of the houses shown in the photo are evident today…and none of the barns. Who needs barns when you don’t uses horses any more?)

old town

(An aerial view of the “jog” toward Old town from the 1930s. There is no direct road to the south passing the cemetery)

196070 old town

(The same aerial view from the 1960s/70s shows the improved road connecting Milford with Fostoria and Spencer with a direct road.)

now

(The improved 4-lane view today.).

Milford's main dam

(A photo of Milford’s main dam)

(“We’re gonna need a bigger…hole.” While these ice fishermen posed with their paddlefish catch, it’s clear they needed bigger access through the ice than a typical drill hole.)

(Old timers may have seen this stuffed “Spoonbill Sturgeon” (paddlefish) at the Kurio Kastle. No doubt it frightened many a youngster in its day.)

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(In this February 24, 1916 news story, the “biggest fish ever taken” from Okoboji was recorded.)

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(And just a few weeks later, this March 9, 1916 article told how teamwork was needed for an even bigger catch.)

Milford’s Old Dam and Railroad

Images