Paradise Dam was a proposed dam on the

Clark Fork River The Clark Fork, or the Clark Fork of the Columbia River, is a river in the U.S. states of Montana and Idaho, approximately long. The largest river by volume in Montana, it drains an extensive region of the Rocky Mountains in western Montana and ...

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...

. It was proposed by the

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers , colors = , anniversaries = 16 June (Organization Day) , battles = , battles_label = Wars , website = , commander1 = ...

as an alternative to the construction of

Glacier View Dam Glacier View Dam was proposed in 1943 on the North Fork of the Flathead River, on the western border of Glacier National Park in Montana. The tall dam, to be designed and constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the canyon between Hu ...

on the western boundary of Glacier National Park, to capture the flow of the Flathead River. The earth embankment dam was planned to be about high, impounding a reservoir of . While it was viewed as a desirable power generation and water storage project by the Corps of Engineers, it was opposed by those it would displace from towns and productive agricultural lands, and was never built.

Proposal

The dam was proposed in the 1940s as an alternative to the controversial Glacier View Dam, which was strenuously opposed by the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

and conservation organizations as an intrusion into national park lands. It would have inundated of already-irrigated and farmed lands, with the reservoir extending up the Clark Fork and up the Flathead to the base of

Kerr Dam The Seli’š Ksanka Qlispe’ Dam previously known as the Kerr Dam is a concrete gravity-arch dam located at river mile 72 of the Flathead River (116 river kilometer). Built in 1938, it raises the level and increases the size of Flathead Lake ne ...

. The project required the relocation of roads, rail lines and houses and businesses in several communities. The cost in 1950 was estimated at $265,569,000. Alternative sites at The Plains, five miles downstream from

Plains, Montana Plains (Salish: ncc̓kʷi) is a town in Sanders County, Montana, United States. The population was 1,106 at the 2020 census. It was founded as ''Horse Plains'' and sometimes called ''Wild Horse Plains'', as the local Native Americans would wint ...

, and the Weeks site, three miles downstream from the Plains site, were examined but rejected on grounds of poor foundation conditions. Three other sites, Knowles (river mile 4), Perma (river mile 11) and Oxbow (river mile 41) were rejected on similar grounds.Corps of Engineers 1950 Columbia River and Tributaries Report, p. 156

Reception

While the project was supported by some local organizations, local opposition was intense, focusing on displacement of productive agriculture and populations and intrusion on Indian rights. Land replacement compensation for the

National Bison Range The Bison Range (BR) is a nature reserve on the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana established for the conservation of American bison. Formerly called the National Bison Range, the size of the bison herd at the BR is 350 adult bison ...

was considered likely. As a result, planning was not pursued and the project remained an alternative to other project farther upstream. In the event, none of the proposed reservoirs in the area were built, apart from

Hungry Horse Reservoir Hungry Horse Dam is an arch dam in the western United States, on the South Fork Flathead River in the Rocky Mountains of northwest Montana. It is located in Flathead National Forest in Flathead County, about south of the west entrance to Glaci ...

Description

The complex arrangement placed a earth embankment across the main channel of the river, diverting the flow to the west, where a straight intake dam structure extending parallel to the riverbed on the riverbank would receive water for the powerplant. A separate curved spillway dam would be located downstream from the intake dam. At the end of the diverted channel an embankment saddle dam would seal the channel. The powerplant was planned to have an initial capacity of 576 MW with eight 72MW units, expandable to 1000 MW with six more generators in the future.Corps of Engineers 1950 Columbia River and Tributaries Report, Paradise Dam schematic plan

References

{{authority control United States Army Corps of Engineers proposed dams Buildings and structures in Sanders County, Montana