According to the McLeod County Sheriff's Office, at about 6:39 p.m. Sunday a pontoon with passengers seeking photos of the Crow River Dam in Hutchinson drifted too close and got stuck.
Hutchinson police and Allina Ambulance responded. Hutchinson firefighters arrived with a boat and firetruck. With the firetruck and a winch, the boat was anchored immediately.
The sheriff's office reported passengers on the boat were helped off before it was pulled to a nearby landing with help from a sheriff's office boat.
“With a combination of our boat, a winch and the sheriff's office we pulled it off the dam,” Hutchinson Fire Chief Mike Schumann said.
He recalled a few similar instances similar to this one in the past.
John Paulson, Hutchinson's environmentalist, said it will be hard to inspect for damage to the rock spillway, which was built on the dam's site in 2008, until the water level decreases.
“I don't anticipate seeing any rock damage or movement, otherwise we would have seen that pontoon go over the spillway,” he said.
Information about damage to the pontoon was not yet available from the sheriff's office. No one was injured.
