Ramsey Dam on the Cedar River State Water Trail in May 2022, with The Old Mill Restaurant shown to the right.

LOOKBACK: Flooding led to fears of Ramsey Dam’s demise

Austinites frequently spread rumors of structure failing, stoking fears of Cedar River tidal wave coming to town

With historic flooding underway in June 1908, Ramsey Mills’ miller telephoned Austin officials to report it was impossible to tell whether his dam blew out.

He didn’t think it would make a difference in Austin anyway.

“The country is one vast inland sea, and where the dam stands is as level as the rest,” the Austin Daily Herald wrote June 23, 1908.

With every heavy rainfall, a cry of “the Ramsey Dam has gone” spread through Austin, the Herald wrote, adding “the cry went along the street a dozen times today.”

Top of Ramsey Dam barely visible during the Cedar River’s flooding in September 2016.

Photo by The Old Mill Restaurant showing the view from its lower dining room during the June 2024 flooding of the Cedar River that hid the Ramsey Dam.

Albert Lea’s newspaper reported the next day that “pressure of the flood in the Cedar River carried out the Ramsey Dam, the great volume of water therefrom sweeping away one of the bridges in the city.”

Ramsey Dam, however, never failed in 1908 despite the Cedar River experiencing massive flooding comparable to Austin’s worst-known flood of September 2004 (measurements started in the 1940s).

For decades, Cedar River floods ignited rumors of a tidal wave on its way to Austin due to the failure of Ramsey Dam next to The Old Mill Restaurant. Built in 1872 for a flour mill, the dam was two miles north of Austin for many years; today, the city’s northern limit runs through its center.

Herald columnist “Old Timer” mentioned the Ramsey rumor in a 1949 column.

“Each spring during high water on the Cedar, someone would be spreading the alarming information that the Ramsey Dam had burst and that a great wave of water was rushing down upon the city.”

When floodwaters wreaked havoc in May 1903, rumors of Ramsey Dam’s demise flew again but the mill reported it was fine, just not visible with floodwaters.

An angler fishes below the Ramsey Dam on the Cedar River State Water Trail in May 2024 with The Old Mill Restaurant in the background.

This reminded the Herald of when Ramsey Dam “went out years and years ago” possibly referring to an 1888 blowout.

Three boys went upriver from Austin to an island east of Oakwood Cemetery when Ramsey Dam’s failure surprised them with floodwaters.

“Here they were caught. Some pretty earnest prayers were sent up from frightened lips,” the Herald wrote in 1903.

The boys climbed a tree to sit for hours until their mothers found them at 9 p.m. and got a “hired man” to retrieve his sunken boat to rescue them.

False alarms about Ramsey Dam during the 1908 flood — which topped 1903 — helped save two men from a tree.

With rumors spreading, Milwaukee Road officials took a train from Austin to their rail bridge over the Cedar downstream of Ramsey Dam. The bridge was good but they heard cries for help.

Older photos — undated on left and 2012 on right — of the Ramsey Dam on the Cedar River.

Two men had climbed a tree after their boat capsized while trying to rescue cattle. The train went back to Austin to retrieve a boat used to rescue the men “from their perilous position.”

Many motorists in June 1925 drove to Ramsey “to watch the waters pouring over the dam” after “the usual flood report” spread of Ramsey Dam washing out.

In 1929, spring flooding of the Cedar sparked rumors. A Herald headline stated an “erroneous report of Ramsey Dam breaking spreads concern in city.”

Floodwaters raised the Cedar about 10 feet on Ramsey Dam but it remained “as firm as ever.”

March 14–15, 1929, editions of the Austin Daily Herald about false rumors of flooding breaking the Ramsey Dam.

The next day, a Herald column “Gossip and Rumor” addressed the falsity that “Ramsey Dam broke!” while the Cedar “ran on a rampage through the city.”

“Women with pails and shovels worked in the streets trying to scoop away the water until the rumors were discounted.”

Noting citizens calling about the rumors, the Herald wrote “the dam at Ramsey has again successfully withstood not only the assaults of impounded waters but the assaults of rumor.”

In May 1941, however, the Cedar punched a hole through a wooden section of Ramsey Dam despite no unusual water pressure. The Herald noted the notoriously false rumors but this time was true.

May, 23, 1941, photo in the Austin Daily Herald of a failure on Ramsey Dam, which wasn’t fully repaired until fall 1947.

“As a result, swimmers will lose some of the finest days of the year at the Ramsey beach; there may be a heavy loss of fish life; and J.H. Meyer, owner of the dam, will be put to considerable expense in repairing the structure.”

At the time, two-thirds of Ramsey Dam was concrete — the first section installed around 1916. It finally was repaired in fall 1947.

When the Cedar flooded in March 1950, the Herald noticed something different.

“It was the first time we can recall when high water wasn’t accompanied with alarming rumors to the effect either that Ramsey Dam has gone out or Ramsey Dam is ready to go out,” the Herald wrote, noting the rumor is “commonplace in every river town that has a dam above it.”

But the rumors persisted.

Cedar River flooding on Ramsey Dam in 1965 (left) and 1973 (right).

In March 1962, a flood photo’s caption read: “Ramsey Dam Holds — Reports this forenoon that the Ramsey Dam had gone out proved to be false.”

Major flooding March 1, 1965, led to word spreading of Ramsey Dam failing — a rumor the Herald stated “always is regarded with deep concern.” Six feet of water on the dam had hidden it.

March 1971 flooding at Ramsey Dam (left) and a colorized photo from one of the two historic floods of July 1978 (right) with Ramsey Dam not visible in the background due to high floodwaters up to the bridge near The Old Mill Restaurant.

When Austin experienced two major floods within 10 days in July 1978, Ramsey Dam apparently was never rumored to be out despite 8 feet of water on it.

Since 1974, Hormel Foods Corp. has owned Ramsey Dam. In 2022, the company strengthened the dam’s foundations and filled a scour hole below. Monitoring systems also were installed to watch for needed repairs.

Crews work in late 2022 to strengthen the Ramsey Dam as part of a project by the dam’s owner Hormel Foods Corp.