Hills Creek Dam

Last updated
Aerial view of the dam and reservoir Hills Creek Reservoir aerial.jpg
Aerial view of the dam and reservoir

Hills Creek Dam is a dam about 4 miles (6.4 km) southwest of Oakridge in Lane County, Oregon, United States. It impounds Hills Creek Reservoir, which has a surface area of 2,735 acres (1,107 ha) and a shoreline of roughly 44 miles (71 km), on the Middle Fork Willamette River. [1]

Oakridge, Oregon City in Oregon, United States

Oakridge is a town in Lane County, Oregon, United States. The population was 3,205 as of the 2010 census. It is located east of Westfir on Oregon Route 58, about 40 miles (64 km) east of Eugene and 150 miles (240 km) southeast of Portland. Surrounded by the Willamette National Forest and the Cascade Range, Oakridge is popular with outdoor enthusiasts for its hiking, mountain biking, wildflowers, fly fishing, birding, watersports, and nearby Willamette Pass Resort.

Lane County, Oregon County in the United States

Lane County is a county in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 census, the population was 351,715, making it the fourth-most populous county in Oregon. The county seat is Eugene. It is named in honor of Joseph Lane, Oregon's first territorial governor.

Oregon State of the United States of America

Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region on the West Coast of the United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. The parallel 42° north delineates the southern boundary with California and Nevada. Oregon is one of only four states of the continental United States to have a coastline on the Pacific Ocean.

Contents

Constructed in 1961 by the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), the dam's purpose is primarily water storage and flood control, and secondarily for recreation, wildlife and waterfowl conservation, and hydropower generation. [2] The earthen dam has a concrete spillway, stands 304 feet (93 m) high, and impounds 355,500 acre feet (438,500,000 m3) of water. There are two hydropower-generating units capable of producing a total of 30 megawatts. [3]

United States Army Corps of Engineers federal agency under the Department of Defense and a major Army command

The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is a U.S. federal agency under the Department of Defense and a major Army command made up of some 37,000 civilian and military personnel, making it one of the world's largest public engineering, design, and construction management agencies. Although generally associated with dams, canals and flood protection in the United States, USACE is involved in a wide range of public works throughout the world. The Corps of Engineers provides outdoor recreation opportunities to the public, and provides 24% of U.S. hydropower capacity.

Hydropower energy derived from falling or running water

Hydropower or water power is power derived from the energy of falling water or fast running water, which may be harnessed for useful purposes. Since ancient times, hydropower from many kinds of watermills has been used as a renewable energy source for irrigation and the operation of various mechanical devices, such as gristmills, sawmills, textile mills, trip hammers, dock cranes, domestic lifts, and ore mills. A trompe, which produces compressed air from falling water, is sometimes used to power other machinery at a distance.

The dam is one of 13 USACE projects in the Willamette Valley, including two others further downstream on the Middle Fork Willamette, Lookout Point Lake and Dexter Reservoir. [4]

Willamette Valley valley in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States

The Willamette Valley is a 150-mile (240 km) long valley in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The Willamette River flows the entire length of the valley, and it is surrounded by mountains on three sides – the Cascade Range to the east, the Oregon Coast Range to the west, and the Calapooya Mountains to the south. It forms the cultural and political heart of Oregon, and is home to approximately 70 percent of its population including its six largest cities: Portland, Eugene, Salem, the state capital, and the cities of Gresham, Hillsboro and Beaverton in the Portland metropolitan area. Eight of Oregon's ten – and 16 of its 20 – largest cities are located in the Willamette Valley.

Lookout Point Lake

Lookout Point Lake is a large reservoir on the Middle Fork Willamette River in Lane County, Oregon, United States. It was created in 1953 with the construction of Lookout Point Dam.

Dexter Reservoir

Dexter Reservoir is a reservoir in Lane County, in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is about 16 miles (26 km) southeast of Eugene on the Middle Fork Willamette River, immediately downriver from Lookout Point Lake, another reservoir. The communities of Dexter and Lowell are near the lake. Oregon Route 58 follows the lake's southern shore, while Pengra Road parallels the lake's northern shore as far east as Lowell.

See also

Hills Creek (Oregon) river in the United States of America

Hills Creek is a tributary, about 16 miles (26 km) long, of the Middle Fork Willamette River in the U.S. state of Oregon. From its headwaters on Juniper Ridge in the Cascade Range, the creek flows northwest through Lane County and the Willamette National Forest for its entire course.

Related Research Articles

Willamette River major river in northwest Oregon

The Willamette River is a major tributary of the Columbia River, accounting for 12 to 15 percent of the Columbia's flow. The Willamette's main stem is 187 miles (301 km) long, lying entirely in northwestern Oregon in the United States. Flowing northward between the Oregon Coast Range and the Cascade Range, the river and its tributaries form the Willamette Valley, a basin that contains two-thirds of Oregon's population, including the state capital, Salem, and the state's largest city, Portland, which surrounds the Willamette's mouth at the Columbia.

Clackamas River tributary of the Willamette River in Oregon

The Clackamas River is an approximately 83-mile (134 km) tributary of the Willamette River in northwestern Oregon, in the United States. Draining an area of about 940 square miles (2,435 km2), the Clackamas flows through mostly forested and rugged mountainous terrain in its upper reaches, and passes agricultural and urban areas in its lower third. The river rises in eastern Marion County, about 55 miles (89 km) east-southeast of Salem. The headwaters are on the slopes of Olallie Butte in the Mount Hood National Forest, about 10 miles (16 km) north of Mount Jefferson, at an elevation of 4,909 feet (1,496 m) in the Cascade Range. The Clackamas flows briefly north and then flows northwest through the mountains, passing through North Fork Reservoir and Estacada. It then emerges from the mountains southeast of Portland. It joins the Willamette near Oregon City and forms the boundary between Oregon City and Gladstone.

McKenzie River (Oregon) tributary of the Willamette River in Oregon

The McKenzie River is a 90-mile (145 km) tributary of the Willamette River in western Oregon in the United States. It drains part of the Cascade Range east of Eugene and flows westward into the southernmost end of the Willamette Valley. It is named for Donald McKenzie, a Scottish Canadian fur trader who explored parts of the Pacific Northwest for the Pacific Fur Company in the early 19th century. As of the 21st century, six large dams have been built on the McKenzie and its tributaries.

Malheur River river in the United States of America

The Malheur River is a 190-mile-long (306 km) tributary of the Snake River in eastern Oregon in the United States. It drains a high desert area, between the Harney Basin and the Blue Mountains and the Snake.

Bull Run River (Oregon) tributary of the Sandy River in the U.S. state of Oregon

The Bull Run River is a 21.9-mile (35.2 km) tributary of the Sandy River in the U.S. state of Oregon. Beginning at the lower end of Bull Run Lake in the Cascade Range, it flows generally west through the Bull Run Watershed Management Unit (BRWMU), a restricted area meant to protect the river and its tributaries from contamination. The river, impounded by two artificial storage reservoirs as well as the lake, is the primary source of drinking water for the city of Portland, Oregon.

Union Valley Reservoir

Union Valley Reservoir is a reservoir in eastern El Dorado County, California, about 20 miles (32 km) northeast of Placerville. The 277,000 acre feet (342,000,000 m3) lake is in Eldorado National Forest in the Sierra Nevada at an elevation of 4,870 feet (1,480 m).

Middle Fork Willamette River river in the United States of America

The Middle Fork Willamette River is one of several forks that unite to form the Willamette River in the western part of the U.S. state of Oregon. It is approximately 115 miles (185 km) long, draining an area of the Cascade Range southeast of Eugene, which is at the southern end of the Willamette Valley.

Glacier View Dam

Glacier View Dam was proposed in 1943 on the North Fork of the Flathead River, on the western border of Glacier National Park in Montana. The 416-foot (127 m) tall dam, to be designed and constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the canyon between Huckleberry Mountain and Glacier View Mountain, would have flooded in excess of 10,000 acres (4,000 ha) of the park. In the face of determined opposition from the National Park Service and conservation groups, the dam was never built.

Agency Valley Dam

Agency Valley Dam is a dam in Oregon, United States, built on the North Fork Malheur River in the eastern part of the state, immediately north of the small town of Beulah in Malheur County. The dam impounds the river to create Beulah Reservoir.

Cottonwood Springs Dam

Cottonwood Springs Dam is a dam in Fall River County, South Dakota in the southwestern part of the state, south of the Black Hills.

Hills Creek Reservoir

Hills Creek Reservoir, also known as Hills Creek Lake, is an artificial impoundment behind Hills Creek Dam on the Middle Fork Willamette River in the U.S. state of Oregon. The lake is near Oakridge in Lane County about 40 miles (64 km) southeast of Eugene, at the confluence of Hills Creek with the Middle Fork. The reservoir and its watershed lie within the Willamette National Forest.

Fall Creek Lake is a reservoir in Lane County, in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is about 22 miles (35 km) southeast of Eugene on Fall Creek, immediately upstream from Unity Bridge, a covered bridge. The communities of Unity, at the bridge site, and Lowell, south of Unity, are near the lake. The unincorporated community of Jasper is further downstream, below the confluence of Fall Creek with the Middle Fork Willamette River.

The Potomac River basin reservoir projects were U.S. Army Corps of Engineers programs that sought to regulate the flow of the Potomac River to control flooding, to assure a reliable water supply for Washington, D.C., and to provide recreational opportunities. Beginning in 1921 the Corps studied a variety of proposals for an ambitious program of dam construction on the Potomac and its tributaries, which proposed as many as sixteen major dam and reservoir projects. The most ambitious proposals would have created a nearly continuous chain of reservoirs from tidewater to Cumberland, Maryland. The 1938 program was focused on flood control, on the heels of a major flood in 1936. The reformulated 1963 program focused on water supply and quality, mitigating upstream pollution from sewage and coal mine waste.

References

  1. ↑ "Hills Creek Reservoir Area". United States Forest Service, Willamette National Forest . Retrieved January 6, 2013.
  2. ↑ "Hills Creek Dam and Lake". USACE, Columbia Basin Water Management Division. May 31, 2002. Retrieved January 6, 2013.
  3. ↑ "Building Strong® at Hills Creek Dam and Reservoir". USACE, Portland District. Retrieved January 6, 2013.
  4. ↑ "The Willamette Valley Project" (PDF). USACE, Portland District. Retrieved January 6, 2013.

Coordinates: 43°42′35″N122°25′22″W / 43.7096°N 122.4229°W / 43.7096; -122.4229

Geographic coordinate system Coordinate system

A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are often chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position and two or three of the numbers represent a horizontal position; alternatively, a geographic position may be expressed in a combined three-dimensional Cartesian vector. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation. To specify a location on a plane requires a map projection.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.