The Horseshoe Dam is a

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, a ...

located North of

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1 ...

. The dam is long, 144 feet high and was built between 1944–1946. The dam forms the Horseshoe Lake as it slows the passage of the

Verde River The Verde River (Yavapai: Haka'he:la) is a major tributary of the Salt River in the U.S. state of Arizona. It is about long and carries a mean flow of at its mouth. It is one of the largest perennial streams in Arizona. Description The ri ...

. The dam was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 2017. Just below Horseshoe Dam is excellent fishing – popular spots include Catfish Point and Mesquite Cove. The dam was built by the

Phelps Dodge Phelps Dodge Corporation was an American mining company founded in 1834 as an import-export firm by Anson Greene Phelps and his two sons-in-law William Earle Dodge, Sr. and Daniel James. The latter two ran Phelps, James & Co., the part of the ...

corporation, a mining company, with funding from the

Defense Plant Corporation The Defense Plant Corporation,(DPC), was subsidiary of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, a government corporation run by the United States Federal Government between 1940 and 1945. To win World War II the United States and its Allied Nations ...

, a World War II government enterprise to facilitate war production. Water rights were exchanged with the Salt River Valley Water User's Association allowing Phelps Dodge to draw from the Black River to which the Water User's Association had rights. At the time, Phelps Dodge had nearly doubled its copper mining capacity in eastern Arizona. The city of Phoenix funded spillway gates in 1949, purchasing part of the reservoir's capacity. The dam also regulates outflows to the Lower Colorado Basin as part of the Colorado River Compact. Today, the

Bureau of Reclamation The Bureau of Reclamation, and formerly the United States Reclamation Service, is a federal agency under the U.S. Department of the Interior, which oversees water resource management, specifically as it applies to the oversight and opera ...

owns and operates the dam with modified construction in 1952 and 1993 after a 1978 report found the dam unsafe.

References

External links

HookedAZ Fishing Community , Horseshoe Lake

SRP Horseshoe Dam
{{Authority control Dams in Arizona Buildings and structures in Maricopa County, Arizona United States Bureau of Reclamation dams Dams completed in 1946 National Register of Historic Places in Maricopa County, Arizona Dams on the National Register of Historic Places in Arizona 1946 establishments in Arizona