The Lincoln Local Protection Project is located on the East Branch of the Pemigewasset River in Lincoln, about 80 miles north of Concord. The East Branch joins with the Pemigewasset River about one mile downstream of the project.

The project provides flood protection along the right bank of the river in the vicinity of the Mill Shopping Mall, the site of a paper mill at the time the project was constructed.

In October 1959, Lincoln and other communities in northern New England experienced severe flooding. A locally-built wooden crib dike on the East Branch of the Pemigewasset River, which provided flood protection to the former paper mill, was seriously damaged by the flood. Although the paper mill did not suffer any flood damage, it was feared that additional flooding, however minor, might cause the dike to fail and leave the paper mill vulnerable to flood damage. Lincoln officials, fearful of losing what was at that time the town’s major employer, asked the Corps to repair and restore the dike. The restoration and repair work took place between July and December 1960 and cost $140,000. The project is operated and maintained by Lincoln.

The project begins at a dam that was owned by the former paper mill and extends 1,450 feet downstream along the west bank of the East Branch of the Pemigewasset River. Work included restoring 1,400 feet of existing dike. This dike begins at the dam’s west abutment and extends 1,450 feet downstream along the river’s right bank. The restoration work included the placement of stone slope protection; constructing 230 feet of earthfill dike with stone slope protection beginning at the dam’s west abutment and extending northerly; and excavating 1,350 feet of channel. The October 1959 flood washed much of the stone protection covering the dike into the East Branch of the Pemigewasset River. The Corps removed these stones and boulders from the river, and those stones with a circumference larger than six inches became part of the stone slope protection constructed by the Corps on the restored dike.