Mill Dam Tragedy

On May 13, 1912, amid the flooding of the Big Sioux River, four young men from Sioux Falls navigated two vessels—a rowboat and a canoe—over the Cascade Mill dam. Guy Beck and Mat Yost managed to make the descent, while John Meehan and Will Dahl were ejected from their canoe when it capsized.

When Beck and Yost rescued Meehan and brought him into their rowboat, the dam's fierce currents capsized it as well. The three men were thrown into the backwash, where they were swept upstream toward the dam. The floodwaters cascading over the dam pushed them down to the riverbed and further downstream. The hydraulic force of the lowhead dam then brought them back to the surface, only to be carried upstream once more by the backwash.

This cycle continued repeatedly as a silent crowd of over 2,500 people witnessed the recovery efforts for three bodies. Searchers worked tirelessly for three days, using more than 100 dynamite charges in a futile attempt to retrieve Will Dahl's body, which was ultimately found wedged between rocks just 40 feet from the dam.

The 1912 spring flood claimed nine lives in Minnehaha County along the Big Sioux River.