Boshears, Director of Public Works, his crew, La Follette Firefighters bust another dam

Here is a look at the culvert under South Indiana Avenue in this photo from the first week of March, the last time beavers dammed it.
The stream that flows to the South Indiana Ave. culvert comes out of this cave, beside the La Follette House, and flows to Big Creek (Ollis Creek).

LAFOLLETTE, TN (WLAF)- The scoreboard now reads: City of La Follette 4 The Beavers 0. “This is the fourth time this year we’ve had to clear out a dam from under this South Indiana Avenue water way,” said Casey Boshears, Director of Public Works. Beavers recently built another dam of the stream that emerges from the cave next to the La Follette House. Wednesday’s dam was about 20-feet up into the culvert. The stream, when not damned, flows out into Big Creek (Ollis Creek).

HERE is the March story of the last time beavers dammed the culvert.

This is a portion of the dam that was brought out of the culvert, about 20-feet in.

Beavers, including a 51-pounder, were relocated so the dam could be taken out, according to Boshears.

Beavers love damming this culvert.

Starting Wednesday afternoon, La Follette Public Works and La Follette Fire Department crews spent a couple of hours taking out the dam. Firefighters pumped the water the dam had backed up away from the dam so they could easier access the structure.

Destroying a beavers dam takes equipment and man power.

After the bulk of the water was pumped away, crew members went into the culvert to remove the big portions of the dam.

This is an area below a support wall next to the stream where Boshears thinks the beavers live. Plans are to seal off this area to keep the beavers away.

(WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED-05/14/2026-6AM-PHOTOS COURTESY OF WLAF’S CHARLIE HUTSON)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related