Thief Valley Reservoir is a large

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 Powder River in

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 ...

, United States. Primarily used for irrigation purposes, it lies at an elevation of approximately 3,000 feet, covers an area of 740 acres, and impounds 17,600 acre-feet. It provides good angling opportunities for

rainbow trout The rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') is a species of trout native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in Asia and North America. The steelhead (sometimes called "steelhead trout") is an anadromous (sea-run) form of the coasta ...

in years of high water. The reservoir was created in 1932 by the Thief Valley Dam, a project of 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 ...

. The dam is a concrete-slab-and-buttress Ambursen structure, 73 feet high and 390 feet long. The dam was designed by Frank A. Banks.The United Press. Builder of Grand Coulee To Retire and Live Near It. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', September 12, 1950.

References

Reservoirs in Oregon Lakes of Baker County, Oregon Lakes of Union County, Oregon Buildings and structures in Baker County, Oregon Buildings and structures in Union County, Oregon Protected areas of Baker County, Oregon Protected areas of Union County, Oregon 1932 establishments in Oregon {{UnionCountyOR-geo-stub

See also

References