Many have been asking what Rip Rap is exactly. I put this article together to  help explain its use at the North Dike, where it came from and how it was moved there.

Rip Rap is a collection of heavy stones placed along a sandy shoreline of a body of water to prevent its erosion due to wave action.

The engineers had specified the placement of a layer of rip rap along the North Dike flow line for a total distance of two miles.

In the spring of 1902 the Water Board awarded a contract to McArthur Brothers to excavate a railroad cut 800 feet long and to place the material as rip rap along shoreline of the North Dike’s Eastern Portion.

In 1903 the Water Board had decided to use a natural declivity just below the dam as a waste channel, or overflow, for excess waters. The contract was extended to include the excavation of rock for placement along the North Dike, this time at the Western portion as far as Sterling.

Here is the story of Rip Rap at the North Dike

Thanks,

Paul