The Old Dam

**The Old Dam,** formerly known as 'The Dam', as well as 'The Red Dam', is one of the oldest man-made river dams in The World. The dam, built very soon after the colonization of Isla Forraje, is one of several well-known landmarks of Isla Puerta.

## History

#### Origin

Settlers of Isla Puerta had been dependent on windmills for several production tasks such as flour milling and wood sawing. However, the mountainous geography of the Island made the use of mills very impractical, as the mountains and hills of the island formed a barrier, keeping the wind from the mills.

Farmer Georgia Nala designed the Old Dam after observing his 4 year old son playing in a creek, building a little dam and using a small opening in the dam to spin a wheel made out of leaves and branches. When he presented his plan to the government, it was received with great enthusiasm. A project of unprecedented scale was set in motion, and building preparations started in 1803.

### Construction

In 1803 the first parts of the dam were built. Since nobody had ever built a dam before, a lot of trial-and-error practices were used in order to find a way to build a dam while there was also a river flowing. This was eventually achieved by building a small creek alongside the river bed.

The initial dam was built out of thick wood planks supported with beams and a boulder foundation. However, this proved to leak so much that the dam would never fill up, and the plan was hence abandoned.

Two years later, in 1805, Nala, in cooperation with Wilco Zafiro and the islands' best architects and engineers, produced a new plan; a clay-brick structure, consisting out of two walls, filled with fine sand. The plans were approved, and once again the dam project was set in motion.

This new dam was built on a two-meter deep foundation out of cobblestone and gravel, and consisted entirely out of red clay bricks, produced out of clay from a clay quarry in Playa del Elefante. The construction of the dam finished in 1809, and eight months later the two mills were opened. In April 1810 the barriers were closed, and the Vally Angelo flooded, creating Lago Nueva. In the process several acres of land were submerged, often with trees and wildlife still on it.

### Productive use

From January 1811 until October 1863 the dam was operated continuously and Lago Nueva was kept on a constant water level. Maintenance on the dam and the mills was nonexistent, or minimal at best. In 1821 the saw mill was replaced by a second flour mill, because of the sheer lack of flour mills.

#### 1863 Drain

In 1863 the Bajio de Barbossa side mill jammed catastrophically, causing the main axle to break, several gears to be split in two, the mill house to be flooded violently, and the impeller stalling in the water gate, causing both severe damage, which lead to an unstoppable leak in the dam. Attempts to block the hole were futile; the force of the water was too strong. Over the course of several weeks Lago Nueva was drained, devastating the lakes ecosystem.

As the lake side of the dam slowly came into view from the murky water, it became obvious the dam was in extremely poor state. concrete rot had set in, and some parts of the center wall had broken, meaning there was now just a layer of sand and the outer dam wall holding the water back.

Consequentially a large scale renovation of the dam and mills was set in. The entire lake side wall was rebuilt, the sand in the dam replaced, the mills torn down and rebuilt from scratch, this time using the finest materials, such as the impellers made from a high grade alloy by a group of blacksmiths. In 1865 the renovated dam was put in use, and the reinforced barriers were closed to allow the lake to refill.

From that point on every five years the lake was drained in order to inspect the dam and execute maintenance to it.

### Retirement

Up until 1914 the dam was in almost constant use. From 1880 on the mills were in use 24/7, operating up to 200 days without stopping at all. In 1910 the first electric plant was put in use, which also allowed for electrical processing of flour and other goods. While the mills became less and less used, electricity became more and more scarce. Plans for the New Dam were created; A hydroelectric dam. The Old dam was closed down in 1914 because it was no longer profitable. The new dam was finished in 1918, and though original plans were to demolish the Old Dam, the Old Dam remains to this day, mainly because of it's historical value.

## Modern Day

In 1969 the Old Dam was renovated, and reopened as a tourist attraction. It was milling flour, generally on one side at the time, for a few hours per day. Several adjustments were made to allow the dam to operate according to modern standards, as well as electric lighting and security systems. A large downside of the New Dam, was that there was no longer the pressure of a large lake, removing a lot of torque from the mills, causing them to jam much more regularly.

Today, the dam attracts hundreds of tourists every week.