Ohio, Fremont to demolish century-old Ballville Dam - Mansfield News Journal
Those fish, walleye, muskellunge, the now-endangered lake sturgeon and others made their way through the ripples and small rapids to the Sandusky Bay.
So bountiful were the fish that the Native Americans living in the Fremont area set up a fish trap where the Ballville Dam exists today, said James Evans, geology professor at Bowling Green State University and a consultant to the City of Fremont.
The river's ecosystem changed and the catch thinned in 1911, when a power company built the Ballville Dam just outside Fremont to generate electricity for the area.
Since then, the Ballville Dam, located about six miles from the river's mouth, has been the great divider for the Sandusky River.
The shallow pool of water above it acts as a reservoir for the city's water supply, creating a wide, lake-like area. Below the dam are the rocky, rapid areas, where walleyes and other fish still spawn and head to the Sandusky Bay.
By 2013, city and state officials