Last article, generated some additional information by a family member who remembers the beaver problem slightly different from mine.
The property owned by Wally Smith had four beaver dams in Park Rill. The southern dam was just upstream from Grampa Smith’s house. Since power had not yet arrived to that section of the property, it was decided that a water wheel needed to be built to irrigate the fruit trees that would soon be planted.
The dam that the beavers had constructed provided an excellent reservoir from which to draw from.
The water wheel was built next to the dam.The dam was breached in such a manner as to provide a narrow flow of water to propel the wheel to carry the water and dump it in a trough which led to the orchard.
The beavers did not interfere immediately, but in time they took exception to the breach and began filling it with mud and sticks, which broke the water wheel. Wally would clear the branches away and repair the broken wheel spokes in the morning and everything worked as it should until the next morning when the process needed to be done again.
Wally inquired with local trappers to see if they would help control the beavers but they would not. He bought traps and set them, but the cagey beavers only filled them with sticks.
Somewhere along the line, power came in and Wally put an electric pump in which made both him and the beavers happy.
As the trees grew, the beavers discovered that apple bark was tastier than poplar tree bark, so the trees closest to the creek were subjected to the sharp teeth of the beavers. The larger trees could not be felled in a single night, so when Wally discovered the issue, he grafted over the new cuts and protected the grafts with chicken wire wrapped around the tree trunks. The beavers learned to pull the wire mesh down revealing the succulent wood. The solution was to wire up the mesh to branches the beavers could not reach. That seemed to do the trick.
The recollection ends by saying there is no memory of flooding or even of wet ground on behalf of the beaver activity.