User:IveGoneAway/sandbox/Rocky Ford State Fishing Area
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The Rocky Ford State Fishing Area is a Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism (KDWPT) outdoor recreation area in northeast Kansas. It has been a popular water recreational area since the original construction of a millpond there in the 1860s.
The centerpiece of the park is a 14 foot high concrete low fall dam. There is a large abutment on the west end and on the east end are the foundations of a demolished water mill and hydroelectric power plant. Except at times of extreme flooding, this dam prevents any fish migration up-stream past that point. This blockage results in a concentration of large game fish in the waters below the dam, making it a popular location for fishing. The dam impounds the recreational fishing and no-wake boating lake of the River Pond Area of Tuttle Creek State Park.
A concrete walkway is in place to allow fishermen from the east side to get access to the flow of water directly below the dam.
The park also includes a 55 acre strip of ground along the east bank of the river, featuring a trail that extends miles south to Dyer Road and miles North to the Rocky Ford Campground, which is a part of the River Pond Area State Park.
The park's vehicle access (Rock Ford Road) is from Dyer's Road, which intersects with U.S. Route 24/Tuttle Creek Boulevard and with Kansas Highway 13 just east of the Tuttle Creek Dam Spillway Area.
From the early days of settlement and statehood, the Big Blue River had been recognized as having excellent potential for hydraulic power, being described as the "Merrimac" of Kansas[1] Dozens of small mill ponds would be established in the watershed, usually to power grist mills and sawmills, before the availability of transported fossil fuels and higher horsepower industrial equipment rendered the relatively small water mills obsolete and relocated markets to industrialize railroad towns. With early electrification, a few of these dams were restored as hydroelectric plants.
An early dam was established at Rocky Ford to grind grain and saw lumber. Over time, four dams were built in succession at the location. Today, the present dam retains the River Pond, established during in the construction of the Tuttle Creek Dam and is the namesake of the Rocky Ford Campground on the south side of that pond.