Box Butte Dam

Last updated
Box Butte Dam
USA Nebraska relief location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location of Box Butte Dam in Nebraska
Usa edcp relief location map.png
Red pog.svg
Box Butte Dam (the United States)
Country United States
Location Dawes County, Nebraska
Coordinates 42°27′18″N103°04′38″W / 42.45513°N 103.07723°W / 42.45513; -103.07723
StatusOperational
Opening date1946
Built by United States Bureau of Reclamation
Dam and spillways
Height87 ft (27 m)
Length5,508 ft (1,679 m)
Reservoir
CreatesBox Butte Reservoir
Total capacity31,060 acre⋅ft (38,310,000 m3)
Surface area1,600 acres (650 ha)
Normal elevation4,000 ft (1,220 m) [1]

Box Butte Dam (National ID # NE01069) is a dam in the arid northwestern panhandle area of Dawes County, Nebraska.

The earthen dam was constructed from 1941 through 1946 by the United States Bureau of Reclamation with a structural height of 87 feet (27 m) and 5,508 feet (1,679 m) long at its crest. [2] It impounds the Niobrara River for flood control, part of the Bureau's Mirage Flats Project for irrigation water storage. No hydroelectric power is produced here. [3]

The reservoir it creates, Box Butte Reservoir, has a water surface of 1,600 acres (650 ha), 612 acres (248 ha) of surrounding land, about 14 miles (23 km) of shoreline, and a capacity of 31,060 acre-feet (38,310,000 m3). [4] Recreation includes fishing (for northern pike, walleye, largemouth bass, yellow perch, and channel cat), hunting, boating, camping and hiking.

The southern shore of the lake borders the Box Butte Reservoir State Recreation Area.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lake Mead</span> Reservoir on the Colorado River in Arizona and Nevada

Lake Mead is a reservoir formed by Hoover Dam on the Colorado River in the Southwestern United States. It is located in the states of Nevada and Arizona, 24 mi (39 km) east of Las Vegas. It is the largest reservoir in the US in terms of water capacity. Lake Mead provides water to the states of Arizona, California, and Nevada as well as some of Mexico, providing sustenance to nearly 20 million people and large areas of farmland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Niobrara River</span> River in Wyoming and Nebraska, United States

The Niobrara River is a tributary of the Missouri River, approximately 568 miles (914 km) long, running through the U.S. states of Wyoming and Nebraska. The river drains one of the most arid sections of the Great Plains, and has a low flow for a river of its length. The Niobrara's watershed includes the northern tier of Nebraska Sandhills, a small south-central section of South Dakota, as well as a small area of eastern Wyoming.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elephant Butte Dam</span> Dam on the Rio Grande in New Mexico, United States

Elephant Butte Dam or Elephant Butte Dike, originally Engle Dam, is a concrete gravity dam on the Rio Grande near Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. The dam impounds Elephant Butte Reservoir, which is used mainly for agriculture but also provides for recreation, hydroelectricity, and flood and sediment control. The construction of the dam has reduced the flow of the Rio Grande to a small stream for most of the year, with water being released only during the summer irrigation season or during times of exceptionally heavy snow melt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Friant Dam</span> Dam in Madera/Fresno Counties, California

Friant Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the San Joaquin River in central California in the United States, on the boundary of Fresno and Madera Counties. It was built between 1937 and 1942 as part of a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) water project to provide irrigation water to the southern San Joaquin Valley. The dam impounds Millerton Lake, a 4,900-acre (2,000 ha) reservoir about 15 miles (24 km) north of Fresno.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pine Flat Dam</span> Dam in California, U.S.

Pine Flat Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the Kings River in the Central Valley of Fresno County, California United States. Situated about 28 miles (45 km) east of Fresno, the dam is 440 feet (130 m) high and impounds Pine Flat Lake, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada just outside the boundary of Kings Canyon National Park. The dam's primary purpose is flood control, with irrigation, hydroelectric power generation and recreation secondary in importance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colorado–Big Thompson Project</span> Federal water diversion project

The Colorado–Big Thompson Project is a federal water diversion project in Colorado designed to collect West Slope mountain water from the headwaters of the Colorado River and divert it to Colorado's Front Range and plains. In Colorado, approximately 80% of the state's precipitation falls on the West Slope, in the Rocky Mountains, while around 80% of the state's growing population lives along the eastern slope, between the cities of Fort Collins and Pueblo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trinity Dam</span> Dam in Trinity County, California

Trinity Dam is an earthfill dam on the Trinity River located about 7 miles (11 km) northeast of Weaverville, California in the United States. The dam was completed in the early 1960s as part of the federal Central Valley Project to provide irrigation water to the arid San Joaquin Valley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Millerton Lake</span> Reservoir in Fresno and Madera counties, California

Millerton Lake is an artificial lake near the town of Friant, about 15 mi (24 km) north of downtown Fresno, California, United States. The reservoir was created by the construction of 319 ft high Friant Dam on the San Joaquin River which, with the lake, serves as much of the county line between Fresno County to the south and Madera County to the north.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Folsom Lake</span> Reservoir on the American River in the Sacramento metropolitan area

Folsom Lake is a reservoir on the American River in the Sierra Nevada foothills of California, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blue Mesa Reservoir</span> Lake on the Gunnison River in Colorado, United States

Blue Mesa Reservoir is an artificial reservoir located on the upper reaches of the Gunnison River in Gunnison County, Colorado. The largest lake located entirely within the state, Blue Mesa Reservoir was created by the construction of Blue Mesa Dam, a 390 feet (120 m) tall earthen fill dam constructed on the Gunnison by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in 1966 for the generation of hydroelectric power. Managed as part of the Curecanti National Recreation Area, a unit of the National Park Service, Blue Mesa Reservoir is the largest lake trout and Kokanee salmon fishery in Colorado.

The Animas-La Plata water project is a water project designed to fulfill the water rights settlement of the Ute Mountain and the Southern Ute tribes of the Ute Nation in Colorado, USA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lake Pueblo State Park</span> State park in Colorado, United States

Lake Pueblo State Park is a state park located in Pueblo County, Colorado. It includes 60 miles (97 km) of shoreline and 10,000 acres (40 km2) of land. Activities it offers include two full-service marinas, recreational fishing, hiking, camping and swimming at a special swim beach.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Belle Fourche Dam</span> United States historic place

The Belle Fourche Dam, also known as Orman Dam, is a dam on Owl Creek in Butte County, South Dakota, USA, approximately eight miles east of Belle Fourche, South Dakota, along U.S. Route 212. Its construction created the Belle Fourche Reservoir, the Belle Fourche National Wildlife Refuge, and the Rocky Point Recreation Area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heart Butte Dam</span> Dam in North Dakota, United States.

Heart Butte Dam is a dam in Grant County of southwestern North Dakota. The dam was a project of the United States Bureau of Reclamation completed in 1949, primarily for irrigation and flood control. The earthen dam is 142 feet in height and impounds the Heart River.

Lost Creek Dam is a dam in Morgan County, Utah, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prosser Creek Dam</span> Dam in Nevada County, California, United States of America

Prosser Creek Dam is a dam in Nevada County, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bonny Dam</span> Dam in Yuma County, Colorado, US

Bonny Dam is a dam in Yuma County, Colorado, in the eastern part of the state.

Silver Jack Dam is a dam in Gunnison County, Colorado.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Middle Rio Grande Project</span>

The Middle Rio Grande Project manages water in the Albuquerque Basin of New Mexico, United States. It includes major upgrades and extensions to the irrigation facilities built by the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District and modifications to the channel of the Rio Grande to control sedimentation and flooding. The bulk of the work was done by the United States Bureau of Reclamation and the United States Army Corps of Engineers in the 1950s, but construction continued into the 1970s and maintenance is ongoing. The project is complementary to the San Juan–Chama Project, which transfers water from the San Juan River in the Colorado River Basin to the Rio Grande. Although distribution of water from the two projects is handled through separate allotments and contracts, there is some sharing of facilities including the river itself. The ecological impact on the river and the riparian zone was the subject of extended litigation after a group of environmentalists filed Rio Grande Silvery Minnow v. Bureau of Reclamation in 1999.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heron Dam</span> Dam in Rio Arriba County, New Mexico

Heron Dam is a storage dam Rio Arriba County, in northern New Mexico in the southwestern United States, just north of the El Vado Dam. It is owned and operated by the United States Bureau of Reclamation. The dam is about 9 miles west of the town of Tierra Amarilla.

References

  1. U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Box Butte Dam
  2. "Dam details - Box Butte Dam - Bureau of Reclamation". Usbr.gov. Retrieved 24 December 2014.
  3. "Project details - Mirage Flats Project - Bureau of Reclamation". Usbr.gov. Archived from the original on 5 November 2014. Retrieved 24 December 2014.
  4. "Recreation.gov recreation area details - Box Butte Reservoir - Recreation.gov". Recreation.gov. Retrieved 24 December 2014.