Blow it up! Dam destruction opens new chapter in Rattlesnake Wilderness

Griffen Smith

After a last check of the explosive charges, U.S. Forest Service blaster Steven Petesch and two other explosives experts scooted around McKinley Lake’s shoreline deep in the Rattlesnake Wilderness, ready to breach an archaic, 100-year old dam.

The blasting team dug several 5-foot holes for the explosives into the ground, covered each charge and connected them to the detonation system using a thin cord. A team of conservation workers awaited anxiously atop a glacial boulder above the lake, unsure what to expect. 

Earlier this summer, in the Rattlesnake Wilderness, Trout Unlimited and the Forest Service decommissioned the McKinley Lake dam, one of 10 dams in the area.

SHANNA MADISON, Missoulian

Three. Two. One, and Petesch pressed the remote detonation button.

The middle of the damn erupted in a barrage of dirt, rocks and logs that shot hundreds of feet into the air. A dust plume enshrouded the lower half of the lake. Giant rocks landed 200 feet away.

When everything settled, the real work began. 

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