High Over the Hi-Line: A Century-Old Dam Gets Its Close-Up From Above

Just before winter swept down on the Hi-Line, drone pilot Colynn took to the skies above the St. Mary Diversion Dam…and came back with footage that says more than any progress report could. His aerial shots capture the scope of the rehabilitation now underway at the 1915-era structure, the quiet workhorse that has shunted water from the St. Mary River into the Milk River for more than a hundred years, keeping farms and towns across north-central Montana alive in the process.

According to The Milk River Project’s latest update, the rebuild is no small tune-up: the roughly $70 million effort is modernizing the dam’s headworks, shoring up structural deficiencies, and adding fish passage for the threatened bull trout. From a few hundred feet up, the scale of it, the crews, the equipment, the sheer tonnage of concrete is impossible to miss.

The whole team over there is extending its thanks to Colynn, who shared the footage freely. The verdict from anyone who has watched: worth every second.

Fair play, too, to the crews on the ground…turning a centenarian into a modern marvel is no small feat.

^{Feature photo via screenshot from Colynn video above}