Owyhee Dam (National ID # OR00582) is a

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...

arch-gravity dam An arch-gravity dam or arched dam is a dam with the characteristics of both an arch dam and a gravity dam. It is a dam that curves upstream in a narrowing curve that directs most of the water pressure against the canyon rock walls, providing the ...

on the

Owyhee River The Owyhee River is a tributary of the Snake River located in northern Nevada, southwestern Idaho and southeastern Oregon in the United States. It is long.Owyhee Rive accessed November 3, 2019 The river's drainage basin is in area, one of the l ...

Eastern Oregon Eastern Oregon is the eastern part of the U.S. state of Oregon. It is not an officially recognized geographic entity; thus, the boundaries of the region vary according to context. It is sometimes understood to include only the eight easternmost ...

near

Adrian, Oregon Adrian is a city in Malheur County, Oregon, United States, near the confluence of the Snake River and the Owyhee River. The population was 177 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Ontario, OR– ID Micropolitan Statistical Area. History ...

, United States. Completed in 1932 during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

, the dam generates electricity and provides

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow Crop, crops, Landscape plant, landscape plants, and Lawn, lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,00 ...

water for several

irrigation district In the United States an irrigation district is a cooperative, self-governing public corporation set up as a subdivision of the State government, with definite geographic boundaries, organized, and having taxing power to obtain and distribute water f ...

s in Oregon and neighboring

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyom ...

. At the time of completion, it was the tallest dam of its type in the world (it was surpassed about two years later). The dam is part of the Owyhee Dam Historic District, which is 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 ...

. The dam impounds the river to create the Owyhee Reservoir, with storage capacity of nearly of water. The more than tall concrete-arch gravity dam is owned 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 ...

(USBR) and operated by the Owyhee Irrigation District. Haystack Rock Road is carried over the long crest of the dam.

History

In August 1927, the US Congress authorized the building of a dam in the canyon of the Owyhee River. Construction of the dam began in 1928 to provide water for irrigation projects. It was built on a foundation of massive rhyolite, massive pitchstone, and associated unmassive pitchstone agglomerate geologic formations adjacent to the

Owyhee Mountains The Owyhee Mountains are a mountain range in Owyhee County, Idaho and Malheur County, Oregon. Mahogany Mountain and the associated volcanic craters of the Lake Owyhee volcanic field are in the Owyhee Mountains of Oregon just east of the Owyhee R ...

. A project of the Bureau of Reclamation, they hired General Construction Company from

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

to build the dam. Aerial view of Owyhee Dam showing ring-gate spillway - 01

Former Oregonian and then United States President

Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party, holding office during the onset of the Gr ...

dedicated what was the highest dam of its type in the world on July 17, 1932.

Secretary of the Interior Secretary of the Interior may refer to: * Secretary of the Interior (Mexico) * Interior Secretary of Pakistan * Secretary of the Interior and Local Government (Philippines) * United States Secretary of the Interior See also

*Interior ministry ...

Ray Lyman Wilbur Ray Lyman Wilbur (April 13, 1875 – June 26, 1949) was an American medical doctor who served as the third president of Stanford University and was the 31st United States Secretary of the Interior. Early life Wilbur was born in Boonesboro, Iowa, ...

delivered Hoover's message at the dam."Looking Back, Looking Forward' — Owyhee Dam Celebrates its 75th Anniversary"
''People, Land & Water''. Retrieved on February 4, 2008. Owyhee's construction served as a prototype for the larger

Hoover Dam Hoover Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between the U.S. states of Nevada and Arizona. It was constructed between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression and was dedicated on Se ...

on the

Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid drainage basin, watershed that encompasses parts of ...

, including the use of refrigeration to cool the concrete. The dam cost $6,000,000, with the total reclamation project costing $18,000,000. Owyhee was designed by Frank A. Banks, who also designed other dams such as the

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 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 ...

. In the 1980s, electricity-generating capabilities were added to the dam.Terry, John. "Oregon’s Trails: 1920s dam got turbines during 1980s", ''

The Oregonian ''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 185 ...

'', August 26, 2007. From 1990 to 1993, the dam was remodeled. Since the height of the dam made a

fish ladder A fish ladder, also known as a fishway, fish pass, fish steps, or fish cannon is a structure on or around artificial and natural barriers (such as dams, locks and waterfalls) to facilitate diadromous fishes' natural migration as well as movemen ...

impractical, the dam closed off the Owyhee

Chinook salmon The Chinook salmon (''Oncorhynchus tshawytscha'') is the largest and most valuable species of Pacific salmon in North America, as well as the largest in the genus ''Oncorhynchus''. Its common name is derived from the Chinookan peoples. Other ve ...

runs that used to swim as far upstream as

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

. On September 23, 2010, the dam was added to the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Owyhee Dam Historic District.

Operations

Water stored at the reservoir is used to irrigate approximately for use in farming. Four different irrigation district utilize the water from Owyhee Reservoir. There are three hydro-power generating facilities at the reservoir added between 1985 and 1993, with seven megawatt and five megawatt turbines at the dam and power sold to the

Idaho Power Company Idaho Power Company (IPC) is a regulated electrical power utility. Its business involves the purchase, sale, generation, transmission and distribution of electricity in eastern Oregon and southern Idaho. It is a subsidiary of IDACORP, Inc. The c ...

. Owyhee has a unique spillway located part way up the dam that utilizes a in diameter tunnel to send excess water to the river below during Spring run-off. The

owns the facility, and the Owyhee Irrigation District operates the dam.

Climate

The following data are from the Western Regional Climate Center, accessed in March 2018. The record high temperature was 112 °F in July 2002 and the record low was -22 °F in January 1962. Annual precipitation is low, averaging less than 10 inches per year, and

diurnal temperature variation In meteorology, diurnal temperature variation is the variation between a high air temperature and a low temperature that occurs during the same day. Temperature lag Temperature lag is an important factor in diurnal temperature variation: peak d ...

is very high in the summer.

Dimensions

Owyhee is long at the crest, which is wide. The base of the dam is wide, with a height of . The crest elevation sits at above sea level and has a hydraulic height of . Total concrete used in this arch gravity style dam was . The dam's

spillway A spillway is a structure used to provide the controlled release of water downstream from a dam or levee, typically into the riverbed of the dammed river itself. In the United Kingdom, they may be known as overflow channels. Spillways ensure tha ...

can allow per second of water flow, while its tunnel capacity is per second. The outlet works can allow up to per second. If full, the reservoir would hold of water, and is long. The total drainage area of the dam and reservoir is in Eastern Oregon and western

. Owyhee Dam was the tallest dam in the world until the ''

Lac du Chambon Lac du Chambon is a reservoir on the Romanche river in Isère, Rhône-Alpes, France. At an elevation of 1040 m, its surface area is 1.4 km². Chambon A chambon is a piece of horse tack. It is a strap that runs forward from the bottom of ...

'' dam was built in France in 1934 at 136.7 meters (448 feet).Nicolas Janberg ICS, "Chambon Dam"
''Structurae'', Retrieved December 18, 2009

References

External links

Oregon Blue Book: Depression Era Public Works Web Exhibit: Owyhee DamUSGS water dataNational Weather Service: Runoff volume at Owyhee Dam
*{{HAER , survey=OR-17 , id=or0200 , title=Owyhee Dam, Across Owyhee River, Nyssa, Malheur County, OR , photos=193 , data=123 , cap=20
Owyhee Project, Bureau of Reclamation, 1996
Dams in Oregon Hydroelectric power plants in Oregon Buildings and structures in Malheur County, Oregon Owyhee River Owyhee Desert National Register of Historic Places in Malheur County, Oregon United States Bureau of Reclamation dams Dams completed in 1932 1932 establishments in Oregon Historic American Engineering Record in Oregon