42 NEBRASKAland • JULY 2018
W
hat did the fish say when it
swam into a wall?
Dam.
All jokes aside, there are more than
2,800 dams in Nebraska, ranging
from stock dams that capture water
for cattle in remote pastures to the
massive Kingsley Dam that forms
Lake McConaughy for irrigation
and hydropower. In between are
hydroelectric and flood control dams
big and small and low-head diversions
for irrigation. No matter the size or
shape, the dams all have one thing
in common: they prevent fish from
swimming upstream. As a result,
there are fewer native fish swimming
in thousands of miles of streams and
rivers than there were historically.
Thanks to a Nebraska Game and
Parks Commission Aquatic Habitat
Program project, however, fish now
have a way around Spalding Dam on
the Cedar River. Completed in 2016, a
fishway, sometimes referred to as a fish
ladder, allows fish upstream passage
during the spring and summer months.
That is good news for anglers, who can
now catch catfish in the 30 -acre lake
and 26 miles of river above the dam
that previously were nearly void of the
game fish.
O
Spalding Dam dates to 1889, when
work began to build a dam of logs,
brush and dirt to power Spalding
Mill, a flourmill. The mill was sold
in 1901, and soon after the owners
began generating power at the site for
Story and photos by Eric Fowler
Fish Ladders
Spalding Dam fishway opens Cedar River to catfish and other species.
The Cedar River flows through gates opened to flush sediment through Spalding Dam in December 2016. A fish bypass, visible at
center, was completed that year allowing fish to pass during the spring and summer months when many species swim upstream to
spawn and feed.
