The Rye Patch Reservoir is a

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 ...

on the

Humboldt River The Humboldt River is an extensive river drainage system located in north-central Nevada. It extends in a general east-to-west direction from its headwaters in the Jarbidge, Independence, and Ruby Mountains in Elko County, to its terminus in the ...

in the

U.S. State In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

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 ...

. It is located about 22 miles northeast of the town of Lovelock, and is managed by the

Pershing County Pershing County is a county in the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2020 census, the population was 6,650. Its county seat is Lovelock. The county was named after army general John J. Pershing (1860–1948). It was formed from Humboldt County ...

Water Conservation District. The reservoir stores water for the agricultural area surrounding Lovelock, which is at the far downstream reach of the Humboldt, near the

Humboldt Sink The Humboldt Sink is an intermittent dry lake bed, approximately 11 mi (18 km) long, and 4 mi (6 km) across, in northwestern Nevada in the United States. The body of water in the sink is known as Humboldt Lake. The sink and it ...

. Since the Lovelock area receives a mere 5.76 inches of rain annually, agriculture requires irrigation, but the high variability of the Humboldt (which often runs completely dry) means that water storage is necessary for irrigation to be feasible.

Rye Patch Settlement

The settlement of Rye Patch got its start in the early 1860s, and at one time included a school and boarding house. Rye Patch was named for the wild dry grass that grew in the area. In 1869, the Central Pacific Railroad came to the region and the Rye Patch station opened. The stamp mill at Rye Patch processed ore from the mines at Star City, Unionville and

Rochester Rochester may refer to: Places Australia * Rochester, Victoria Canada * Rochester, Alberta United Kingdom *Rochester, Kent ** City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area ** History of Rochester, Kent ** HM Prison ...

until the late 1870s. The Rye Patch Post Office was in operation from June 1872 until November 1916.

Rye Patch Dam

In 1933, 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 ...

decided to build the Rye Patch Dam to impound the Humboldt and create the reservoir. The dam was built between 1935 and 1936 to the west of Rye Patch station. A

New Deal The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Cons ...

project intended to help fight 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 was funded by the

Public Works Administration The Public Works Administration (PWA), part of the New Deal of 1933, was a large-scale public works construction agency in the United States headed by Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes. It was created by the National Industrial Recove ...

and employed workers from the

Civilian Conservation Corps The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was a major part of ...

. The dam was expanded in 1975–1976, raising the dam three feet to provide the reservoir with more storage capacity. Rye Patch Reservoir also includes the Pitt–Taylor Reservoirs, two off-stream storage basins that predate Rye Patch. They were built in 1913 by Humboldt–Lovelock Irrigation, Light and Power Company, a private venture run by William C. Pitt, an upper Lovelock Valley rancher, and John G. Taylor, an upper valley farmer and sheep rancher. These reservoirs are less efficient than Rye Patch, losing much water to evaporation, so they are used only for additional capacity in high-flow years. The reservoir has experienced sedimentation, a problem common to reservoirs in which

sediment Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sand an ...

settles out of the river flow and decreases the capacity of the reservoir. A 1972 study estimated that the reservoir had lost 10% of its capacity to sedimentation since construction. The reservoir has come under criticism, particularly from upstream users who accuse Lovelock farmers of attempting to monopolize the waters of the Humboldt for their own use. For instance, when the reservoir was nearly drained in 1992 to provide water to the farms, anglers at the

Rye Patch State Recreation Area Rye Patch State Recreation Area is a state park unit of Nevada, United States, adjoining Rye Patch Reservoir, an impoundment on the Humboldt River, and the smaller Pitt-Taylor Reservoirs. The recreation area is located at the end of State Rou ...

complained of a massive fish kill. The project has also been criticized for single-minded focus on irrigation and skewed cost-benefit ratios. Furthermore, a study by the Nevada State Museum in 1987 concluded that construction of the Rye Patch and Pitt–Taylor Reservoirs flooded archaeological and paleontological sites that showed evidence of prehistoric human habitation.

Notes

{{authority control Humboldt River Reservoirs in Nevada Dams in Nevada United States Bureau of Reclamation dams Dams completed in 1936 Lakes of Pershing County, Nevada 1936 establishments in Nevada