American Falls Dam

The American Falls Dam is a concrete gravity-typedam in the western United States, located near American Falls, Idaho, on river mile 714.7 of the Snake River. The dam and reservoir are a part of the Minidoka Project on the Snake River Plain and are used primarily for flood control, irrigation, and recreation. When the original dam was built in the 1920s by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the residents of American Falls were forced to relocate three-quarters of their town to make room for the reservoir.

A second dam was completed in 1978 and the original structure was demolished. Although the dam itself is located in Power County, its reservoir also stretches northeastward into both Bingham County and Bannock County.