The Sierra Madre Dam is a
dam on Little Santa Anita Creek, at the mouth of
Little Santa Anita Canyon, in
Los Angeles County, California
Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the List of the most populous counties in the United States, most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, ...
. It is in the
San Gabriel Mountains
The San Gabriel Mountains ( es, Sierra de San Gabriel) are a mountain range located in northern Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County and western San Bernardino County, California, United States. The mountain range is part of the Tr ...
, south of the
Angeles National Forest, on the northern border of
Sierra Madre.
History
As a result of the flood of 1914, which caused an estimated $10,000,000 in property damage, in the
San Gabriel Valley
The San Gabriel Valley ( es, Valle de San Gabriel) is one of the principal valleys of Southern California, lying immediately to the east of the eastern city limits of the city of Los Angeles, and occupying the vast majority of the eastern part ...
, the
California Legislature implemented The Los Angeles County Flood Control Act that entailed a systematic study for flood relief. Results showed an average of 60,000 acre feet of water, valuing between half a million to one million dollars, being wasted from the San Gabriel Mountain watershed into the ocean that could otherwise be conserved and domestically used for nearly half a million people.
[Collins, A. The Sierra Madre Dam: Its Inception and Design (1932): ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. Web.]
In 1924, a bond issue was approved by voters in the amount of $35,300,00 to build systems that would store and conserve water including eight dams - Thompson Creek,
Big Dalton,
San Gabriel,
Big Santa Anita, Eaton Canyon,
Big Tujunga,
Pacoima,
Puddingstone and Sierra Madre.
Dam
The concrete
arch dam has a height of , and a width of . Construction was completed in 1928. It is owned by
Los Angeles County Department of Public Works. At the lower face of the dam, water can be released out of a steel grille covered diameter outlet onto a
spillway, and then into channelized Little Santa Anita Creek.
In the 1940s
CCC—Civilian Conservation Corps workers built the concrete channel containing the creek, from the dam through adjacent Sierra Madre. They also constructed public street bridges and
footbridges across the channel in the Sierra Madre Canyon neighborhood.
Reservoir–debris basin
The dam's
debris basin, when unfilled with sediment, and a small
reservoir, can have a storage capacity of , and a normal surface area of 1
acre
The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial
Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism.
Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to:
Places
United States
* Imperial, California
* Imperial, Missouri
* Imp ...
. Its surrounding perimeter
watershed
Watershed is a hydrological term, which has been adopted in other fields in a more or less figurative sense. It may refer to:
Hydrology
* Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins
* Drainage basin, called a "watershe ...
area is , with some slopes coated in
gunnite
Shotcrete, gunite (), or sprayed concrete is concrete or mortar conveyed through a hose and pneumatically projected at high velocity onto a surface, as a construction technique, first used in 1907 invented by Carl Akeley. It is typically ...
.
[Findlakes.com: Sierra Madre Dam and reservoir]
. accessed 7.14.2014 The upstream
drainage basin for Little Santa Anita Creek is much larger.
Little Santa Anita Creek is a tributary of
Santa Anita Creek
Santa Anita Creek (Santa Anita Wash on federal maps) is a long stream in Los Angeles County, California. It flows southwards from its headwaters in the south ridge of the San Gabriel Mountains, to form the beginnings of the Rio Hondo near Irwind ...
, which is a tributary of the
Rio Hondo at their
confluence
In geography, a confluence (also: ''conflux'') occurs where two or more flowing bodies of water join to form a single channel. A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point where a tributary joins a larger river (main stem); o ...
in
Whittier Narrows. The Rio Hondo is a major tributary of the
Los Angeles River.
The dam and debris basin–reservoir are used for flood and sediment control, and for downstream fish
habitat protection.
[
]
Access
Access to the dam is restricted by locked gates and chain link fencing across the public Sierra Madre Canyon neighborhood side.
To the west, on Mount Wilson Trail Road in the neighborhood, there is a trailhead for the historic Mount Wilson Trail, a hiking trail that climbs up through Little Santa Anita Canyon to reach Mount Wilson.The Far Side of the Sky Blog: "History of the Mount Wilson Trail"
/ref>
/ref> Other trails, now within the Angeles National Forest, branch off it to the creek for canyoneering, and to other views and destinations. Waterfalls, including a tall one, are in the deep canyon above the dam.[
]
See also
* List of dams and reservoirs in California
Following is a list of dams and reservoirs in California in a sortable table. There are over 1,400 named dams and 1,300 named reservoirs in the state of California.
Dams in service
:''Please add to this list from the below sources.''
Former ...
References
Los Angeles County Department of Public Works dams
Arch dams
San Gabriel Mountains
Sierra Madre, California
Dams completed in 1928
Civilian Conservation Corps in California
1928 establishments in California
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