Kachess Lake () is a

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

and

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

along the course of the

Kachess River Kachess River is a tributary of the Yakima River, in the U.S. state of Washington. From its source on Chickamin Ridge in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness region of the Cascade Range, the Kachess River flows south into Kachess Lake, a natural lake regu ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

state, US. The upper part of the lake, north of a narrows, is called Little Kachess Lake. The Kachess River flows into the lake from the north, and out from the south. Kachess Lake is the middle of the three large lakes which straddle

Interstate 90 Interstate 90 (I-90) is an east–west transcontinental freeway and the longest Interstate Highway in the United States at . It begins in Seattle, Washington, and travels through the Pacific Northwest, Mountain West, Great Plains, Midwest, and ...

north of the Yakima River in the

Cascade Range The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, ...

. The other two are

Cle Elum Lake Cle Elum Lake is a lake and reservoir along the course of the Cle Elum River, in Washington state USA. At the site of the future city of Cle Elum, Washington, a Northern Pacific Railway station was named Clealum after the Kittitas name Tle-el-Lum ...

, the easternmost which is also north of I-90 and

Keechelus Lake Keechelus Lake () is a lake and reservoir in the northwest United States, near Hyak in Kittitas County, Washington. Approximately southeast of Seattle and a few miles southeast of Snoqualmie Pass, it is the source of the Yakima River. Keechelus ...

, the westernmost, which is south of I-90. Kachess Lake is part of the

Columbia River The Columbia River (Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, C ...

basin, the Kachess River being a tributary of the Yakima River, which is tributary to the Columbia River. The lake is used as a storage

for the Yakima Project, an irrigation project run by the

United States 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 ...

. Although a natural lake, Kachess Lake's capacity and discharge is controlled by Kachess Dam, a high earthfill structure built in 1912. The discharge channel for Kachess Reservoir is 2,877 feet long and was constructed from the natural lake to the intake structure of the dam's outlet works, approximately 1800 feet downstream and at a lower elevation than the original lake outlet. The intent of the lowered outlet works was to put all of the average annual runoff into service by adding an additional 76,000 acre feet of natural lake water. As a storage reservoir, Kachess Lake's active capacity is . The name Kachess comes from a Native American term meaning "more fish", in contrast to Keechelus Lake, whose name means "few fish".

References

External links

Kachess Dam

USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, a ...

GNIS The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) is a database of name and locative information about more than two million physical and cultural features throughout the United States and its territories, Antarctica, and the associated states of ...

Historic American Engineering Record Heritage Documentation Programs (HDP) is a division of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) responsible for administering the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), and Historic American Landscapes ...

(HAER) documentation, filed under Easton, Kittitas County, WA: ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** {{Authority control Reservoirs in Washington (state) Historic American Engineering Record in Washington (state) Lakes of Kittitas County, Washington Buildings and structures in Kittitas County, Washington Protected areas of Kittitas County, Washington Wenatchee National Forest Dams in Washington (state) United States Bureau of Reclamation dams Dams completed in 1912 1912 establishments in Washington (state) Tributaries of the Yakima River

See also

References

External links