The Grand Rapids Public Museum, pictured here Wednesday, July 19, 2017, is one of six sites on the Grand River that is now being designed for river access and recreation use. (Nic Antaya | MLive.com)

By Amy Biolchini | abiolch1@mlive.com

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – As a nonprofit pursues a $44.5 million effort to restore the rapids to the Grand River, it begs the question: when was the last time the river had rapids?

Pictures of the rapids that defined the area are hard to come by – but the rapids made an impression on early visitors.

"Before the river was changed by the work of man, the rapids had a nearly uniform descent for about a mile…sufficient to give a decided turbulent and wild appearance to the waters, and to make a noise that broke the stillness of the forest and echoed from the neighboring hills,” wrote Charles A. Whitmore of the Kent Scientific Institute of Grand Rapids in 1895.

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An altered image shows what the Grand River in front of DeVos Place could look like after a $44.67 million restoration project. (Courtesy | Grand Rapids Whitewater)

As Grand Rapids Whitewater develops its plan to “restore” the rapids back to the Grand, it is relying heavily on historic information to guide the process.

The nonprofit leading the charge to bring rapids back to the river is leaning on information from the Grand Rapids Public Museum, the city of Grand Rapids archives and the Grand Rapids Historical Commission – as well as stories and memories from the community.

New surveys of the river bed are also guiding their design.

“These rapids are about a mile in extent and 300 yards wide and must have at least a 10-foot fall, some think 15,” said an 1826 article about the river that appeared in the National Intelligencer. “They are crowded with huge round rocks, among which the water roars and foams with great fury.”

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This portion of a hand-drawn map circa 1830 depicts the rapids in the Grand River. In this map, north is on the right. The small island in the river is the approximate location of the JW Marriott Hotel in downtown Grand Rapids. (Courtesy | Grand Rapids History & Special Collections, Archives, Grand Rapids Public Library, Grand Rapids, MI)

1830

Old surveys, however, offer some of the most defining records of the Grand River rapids.

An early survey map from 1830 shows a series of lines drawn in the river, depicting rapids in an area that's just north of the Blue Bridge downtown today.

Historical accounts show the first permanent white settlers began altering the river soon after they arrived in the 1820s.

The river was quickly industrialized.

Louis Campau set up shop on the banks of the river in 1826 – and nine years later the first dam was built in 1835.

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This portion of a hand-drawn map made by Lucius Lyon in 1831 depicts the rapids in the Grand River. The small island in the river is the approximate location of the JW Marriott Hotel in downtown Grand Rapids. (Courtesy | Grand Rapids History & Special Collections, Archives, Grand Rapids Public Library, Grand Rapids, MI)

1831

As Lucius Lyon arrives in Grand Rapids in 1831, his survey of the area also depicted rapids in the river near where downtown now sits.

By 1833 Lyon has developed his riverfront property both for waterpower and for transportation around the rapids. His property sits where DeVos Place is now located.

The rapids still made their presence known in 1838, when a visitor, Frank Little, wrote that the “incessant, impressive roar of the rapids” kept him up at night as he slept.

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This 1865 photo shows the horseshoe-shaped dam built in 1849 on the Grand River, prior to its destruction in 1866. (Grand Rapids Public Museum Collections)

1849

In 1849 a rough dam was built near Sixth Street out of stone, gravel, logs and brush and shaped like a horseshoe.

There was a chute that allowed men with lumber rafts to go through the dam.

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A painting of a scene on the Grand River in 1856 by Sarah Nelson from the west side of the river looking east. (Courtesy | Grand Rapids History & Special Collections, Archives, Grand Rapids Public Library, Grand Rapids, MI)

1856

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This photo shows a wooden dam built in the Grand River near Sixth Street in 1866 by the Water Power Company. This dam replaced a rougher, horseshoe-shaped dam made from stones, gravel, logs and brush. The new dam provided water to the west side canal. It was eventually replaced by a beautification project in the 1920s. (Courtesy | Grand Rapids History & Special Collections, Archives, Grand Rapids Public Library, Grand Rapids, MI)

1866

The horseshoe-shaped structure was torn down and replaced in 1866 by a more permanent wooden dam closer to Sixth Street. The dam provided water to the west side canal – but would again be replaced by a beautification project in the 1920s.

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This circa 1870 photo shows the Grand River from Lookout Park with the Leonard Street bridge in the background and Comstock Row. Taylor's Tannery has one of the four burned-off roofs behind the North Ionia school, located to the right of center in the photo. (Grand Rapids Public Museum Collections)

1870

As railroad lines were developed, the need to send lumber down the river continued to diminish.

This started with the extension of the Grand Rapids & Indiana line to Rockford, which meant lumber rafts no longer needed to float down the Rogue River to the Grand.

1873 was considered to be the peak year for log output.

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This circa 1880 photo shows logs floating down the Grand River above the Sixth Street bridge with Lookout Hill in the background. (Grand Rapids Public Museum Collections)

1880s

West Michigan after the Civil War relied heavily on its lumber economy.

Under normal conditions, logs typically were harvested in the winter and brought by sleds and trains to the Grand River. Once the ice melted, logs were placed in the Grand River, then floated to large booms along the river.

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Logs float down the Grand River around a cable power tower north of the Bridge Street bridge. The logs are destined for the Berkey & Gay Furniture Company in this photo, circa 1880. (Grand Rapids Public Museum collections)

1880s

Although logging in Michigan had passed its peak, it remained the economic life blood of the area. Grand Haven and Spring Lake Village alone had 26 saw mills dotting the river and bayous to produce lumber for a growing nation. The economic survival of the area depended upon a successful annual log run.

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This 1883 photo shows the Great Log Jam of 1883 and flood on the Grand River in Grand Rapids. The flood was a major disaster for post-Civil War West Michigan and could have ruined the area's lumber-based economy. (City of Grand Rapids Archives)

1883

Record flooding after heavy rains in June and July of 1883 caused a magnificent log jam on the river for miles on end.

The Great Log Jam of 1883 was well-documented by photographers at the time.

As water levels rose to record-high levels, the river flooded -- and so did special enclosures holding logs as they waited to be transported to a lumber mill.

The logs broke loose like a stampede, and thousands clogged the river and smashed bridges in a 47-mile stretch from Lowell through to Ottawa County.

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This 1883 photo shows the Great Log Jam of 1883 and flood on the Grand River in Grand Rapids. (City of Grand Rapids Archives)

The logs are moving so quickly in this photo of the Great Log Jam of 1883 that they are blurred in the photo.

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This 1883 photo shows the impact of the Grand River flood at Bridge and Stocking in Grand Rapids, at the same time the Great Log Jam of 1883 was underway. (City of Grand Rapids Archives)

The massive flooding that occurred in 1883 was followed by the Great Flood of 1904.

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This 1904 photo shows people standing near the frozen Grand River south of the Sixth Street bridge at the dam during a flood. (Grand Rapids Public Museum Collections)

1904

The Great Flood of 1904 inspired city leaders to invest in many improvements along the river, including flood walls and earthen embankments.

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This image circa 1911 or 1912 shows flood wall construction near the Sixth Street bridge in Grand Rapids. (City of Grand Rapids Archives)

1911

The resulting floodwalls still dictate much of the Grand River's banks through downtown Grand Rapids today -- something city leaders are now trying to fix.

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This 1911 photo shows the Bridge Street bridge over the Grand River, and the Berkey & Gay Furniture Company and the Bissell Carpet Sweeper Company. (City of Grand Rapids Archives)

By the early 1900s, so much water had been diverted from the river to power downtown industries that the Grand River was dirty and nearly dry at times.

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This circa 1920 photo taken from the Grand River's east bank shows the American Can Company building at 678 to 730 Front Ave. NW. The Sixth Street Bridge is on the right. By 1935 the building was taken over by Allen Calculators. (Grand Rapids Public Museum Collections)

1920s

“Beautification” efforts in the 1920s added five dams to the river in an attempt to keep the water levels higher in the summer.

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A photo of the Grand River in 1928, as dry conditions and overuse of the river as a power source left the riverbed exposed. (Courtesy | Grand Rapids History & Special Collections, Archives, Grand Rapids Public Library, Grand Rapids, MI)

1928

Diversion of the Grand River’s water for power had left the river slow and often dry in the summer, and “so robbed the river of its water, however, that the rapids are little noticed – in fact there is so little water in the summer time that the river struggles through this section only by means of turning itself into disconnected rivulets,” the Grand Rapids Herald wrote at the time.

Gone were the rushing, roaring rapids the city was named after.

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Fishermen see what they can catch September 18, 2012 at the Sixth Street Dam, a popular fishing spot on the Grand River in Grand Rapids. (Sally Finneran | MLive file photo)

The Grand today

The rapids that awed the first settlers of Grand Rapids in the 1820s haven't been seen this century or since the last.

With concentrated efforts of Grand Rapids Whitewater and city officials, the rapids could return by 2024 -- almost 200 years since they were first documented.

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