Long Lake Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the
Spokane River
The Spokane River is a tributary of the Columbia River, approximately long, in northern Idaho and eastern Washington in the United States. It drains a low mountainous area east of the Columbia, passing through the Spokane Valley and the city of ...
, between
Lincoln County and
Stevens County about northwest of
Spokane
Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Ca ...
in eastern
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 o ...
. It forms
Long Lake (Washington)
The Spokane River is a tributary of the Columbia River, approximately long, in northern Idaho and eastern Washington in the United States. It drains a low mountainous area east of the Columbia, passing through the Spokane Valley and the city of ...
, a long reservoir, and has a hydroelectric generating capacity of 71
megawatt
The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James ...
s. The dam was built by Washington Water Power (now
Avista Utilities), which operates five other dams along the Spokane.
Upon its completion in 1915, Long Lake Dam completely blocked
salmon
Salmon () is the common name for several commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family Salmonidae, which are native to tributaries of the North Atlantic (genus ''Salmo'') and North Pacific (genus '' Oncorhy ...
migrations to the upper portions of the Spokane River watershed, although much larger
Grand Coulee Dam
Grand Coulee Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington, built to produce hydroelectric power and provide irrigation water. Constructed between 1933 and 1942, Grand Coulee originally had two powerh ...
on the
Columbia River extirpated salmon from the entire Spokane basin by 1942.
Hydroelectric Power Plant
The Long Lake Hydroelectric Power Plant was also built in 1915. It 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 ...
in 1988. The listing included one
contributing building
In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distric ...
and five
contributing structures on in
Lincoln County, Washington
Lincoln County is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2020 census, the population was 10,876, making it the fifth-least populous county in the state. The county seat and largest city is Davenport.
Lincoln County was cr ...
and
Stevens County, Washington.
It was built by the
Washington Water Power Co.[ With ]
See also
*
List of dams in the Columbia River watershed
There are more than 60 dams in the Columbia River watershed in the United States and Canada. Tributaries of the Columbia River and their dammed tributaries, as well as the main stem itself, each have their own list below. The dams are listed i ...
*
Little Falls Hydroelectric Power Plant, also built by the Washington Water Power Co. on the Spokane River and NRHP-listed
References
External links
*
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 Ford, Stevens County, WA:
**
**
Buildings and structures in Lincoln County, Washington
Buildings and structures in Stevens County, Washington
Historic American Engineering Record in Washington (state)
Hydroelectric power plants in Washington (state)
United States power company dams
Dams on the National Register of Historic Places in Washington (state)
Dams completed in 1915
Energy infrastructure completed in 1915
Dams on the Spokane River
National Register of Historic Places in Lincoln County, Washington
National Register of Historic Places in Stevens County, Washington
{{Washington-NRHP-stub