Brushy Creek Dam

Last updated: 10/7/2007
River/Stream: Brushy Creek
 
Location: Lehigh, Webster County
 
Owner:
 
Height (ft.):
 
Hazards: drowning, varying, visibility
 
Warning Signs: Inadequate
 
Comments: Earthen impoundment dam with a concrete spillway draining lake overflow from the top of the dam.
 
My wife and I visited the site on October 6, 2007, to see first hand what hazards contributed to the deaths of the Greenwood brothers. On foot my first impression is that the spillway was very intimidating. The only signs that I saw were apparently meant to warn pedestrians (swimmers?) to stay off the spillway. While we were there, a fisherman in a boat with electric motor trolling two lines passed only fifteen feet away from me and the spillway. I heard that the water levels in April, 2007, were quite high. If that had been the case on October 6th, I could very well have been a witness to another spillway incident.  -- Lyle Danielson
 
Fatalitites: 2
 
        April 26, 2007 - anglers John & Frank Greenwood
 
Incident Report:
 
LEHIGH - The two fishermen who died after their boat apparently went over the dam at Brushy Creek were brothers. John Greenwood, 78, of Clarinda, and Frank Greenwood, 73, of Webster City, had gone fishing Thursday night at Brushy Creek Lake and were reported missing Friday morning. The bodies of the two men were found Friday afternoon in Brushy Creek below the spillway of the lake after the boat apparently went over the dam. Neither was wearing a life jacket.
Debris including boat cushions, coolers and life vests were found below the spillway Friday afternoon. A search airplane from the Iowa State Patrol spotted the boat wedged under a log more than a half mile downstream from the spillway and the bodies were then located by searchers walking the shoreline at approximately 3 p.m.