History
Court Ordered Defining the Legal Lake Level
The legal lake level for Higgins Lake has been established through a series of Michigan Circuit Court orders. These court-defined levels guide how the lake is managed throughout the year.
Court Ordered Documents
1926 Circuit Court Order
Establishing Natural Lake Level
1982 Circuit Court Order
Establishing Winter Level
2009 Circuit Court Order
Temporary Additional 3″ Winter Reduction
Lake Levels
Every fifteen minutes a submerged pressure gauge in Higgins Lake reads the pressure due to the height of water/ice above the gauge, converts this pressure to a lake level reading, and sends the data to a United States Geological Survey (USGS) office. All of the lake level data used to create the series of charts below came from the USGS website.
The Roscommon County Board of Commissioners oversees lake level control at the Cut River Dam, following the court’s directives.