Meteorologist Kevin Usealman takes us to a place that was once dry land and is now a getaway for those who love the water.
The Holloway Dam was a million-dollar project in the 1950s when it was completed and it created the Holloway Reservoir.
It was started as a drinking water project for the city of Flint but now is a well-kept secret in Northeast Genesee County. It's a slice of Up North right here at home
"I started coming out here on my own with the boat as soon as I had my driver's license," said Lance Usealman.
My brother, Lance, and I have been making memories here our whole lives.
"But then you ended up catching all kinds of fish when it stopped raining," Lance Usealman said.
"It stopped and the fish just started jumping in the boat," Kevin Usealman said.
It's hard to believe this was once 2,300 acres of dry land, intentionally flooded in 1955.
"Earl Holloway, who was the water commissioner at that time, had this wild dream his critics called it," said Jack Hinterman, Vice President of the Holloway Lake Association. "Iit took three or four years to build."
The new dam would back up the Flint River for eight miles -- a massive project.
"you couldn't do anything like this today anymore."
For years, the reservoir sat untouched as Flint used the water. But when that era ended, a new idea emerged.
The Mott Foundation helped fund Holloway Regional Park. Most of the land was made public and the reservoir was opened for recreational use in 1968.
Everybody goes Up North and they drive right past it to get up there. But those of us in on this best-kept secret don't drive past. We keep on making memories.
"There's this thing about the water," said Amy McMillan, Director of Genesee County Parks. "Its peaceful and it provides this connection with nature that nothing really does."
In drought conditions, the city can still tap the reservoir for up to 65-million gallons of water a day.
