In the days when Cornell's campus was Ezra Cornell's 300-acre working farm, Beebe Lake was a swamp. In spring, the lake's shores still turn spongy, making the wooden footbridge a necessity for visitors who hope not to lose their shoes in the muck.

In the 1980s, the lake had to be dredged. One hundred years of silt carried downstream by the water had accumulated behind the dam to levels that threatened to return the lake to its swampy roots. Besides reducing the lake's scenic value, such a turn of events would have eliminated the thundering waterfall and the value of the hydroelectric plant downstream.