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Any photos not otherwise credited are from the personal collection of Frank Passic, Albion Historian.
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Morning Star, October 24, 2021, pg. 4 One of Albion’s greatest assets in pioneer days was its water power. In fact, it was the main attraction of "The Forks" of the Kalamazoo River and the water-level drop here that enticed pioneers to come and settle our town. The main dam that was built in the 1830s to harness that power is today the Victory Park waterfall. In recent years the State of Michigan has been prodding local communities (including Albion and Concord) to come to terms with their dams, and to revert their rivers back to an "all-natural" configuration as had existed in nature before development occurred. Here in Albion, our Victory Park dam in its present form, was constructed in 1905 to replace the original. That’s 116 years ago. It and the various concrete supports surrounding it are not in the greatest of shape. The City of Albion will have to make a decision at some point concerning what to do with our dam: Keep and repair it, or remove it. Both options would be very expensive, especially when the City of Albion really needs money for local street repairs instead. There are many issues involved, including what to do with the land adjacent to the River when the millpond would be drained. In this column I’ll be featuring a short series the next several weeks about Albion’s water power history in order to give our readers an idea of the importance this dam has been in the development of our city. Upon the arrival of our first settler, P. Tenney Peabody (1792-1856) to our community in 1833, other pioneers began arriving at The Forks soon thereafter. One of them was Wareham Warner (1779-1854) who arrived in 1834. One of the first things Wareham did upon his arrival was to erect a sawmill with Mr. Peabody. To power the sawmill, a water raceway was constructed leading to it, and, using today’s geographic terms, the "Victory Park dam" was constructed of heavy oak planks. The mill race which began adjacent to the dam ran northwards from there, across Rieger Park, then across E. Erie St. into the Market Place where the sawmill was located. Water would "race" down to the mill, where it turned mechanical equipment to provide the power needed to cut the wood. From our Historical Notebook this week we present an 1895 photo of the original Victory Park dam. It is surrounded by a stone wall, and there is fencing in the foreground. There is a fish ladder on the far right, showing that settlers realized the importance of respecting our natural resources by allowing the fish to swim upstream at this point. In the distance on the right is the peak of a barn. That’s probably the commercial ice-barn where ice was harvested in the winter from the nearby millpond and stored for distribution to ice-boxes across Albion. In the distance is the Haven Road bridge. I encourage our readers to visit the Victory Park waterfall and observe the condition of things up close. Take a good look.  1895 Photograph of the Original Victory Park Dam
All text copyright, 2026 © all rights reserved Frank Passic | Artwork copyright Maggie LaNoue © 2026
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