Navajo Dam is an earthen dam on the San Juan River, a tributary of the Colorado River

Colorado River

The Colorado River , is a river in the Southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, approximately long, draining a part of the arid regions on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains. The watershed of the Colorado River covers in parts of seven U.S. states and two Mexican states...

, in northwestern New Mexico

New Mexico

New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...

 in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The dam and its reservoir, Navajo Lake

Navajo Lake

Navajo Lake is a reservoir located in San Juan County and Rio Arriba County in northwestern New Mexico, in the southwestern United States. Portions of the reservoir extend into Archuleta County in southern Colorado...

, lie in the arid western foothills of the Rocky Mountains

Rocky Mountains

The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...

 about 30 miles (48.3 km) east of Farmington

Farmington, New Mexico

Farmington is a city in San Juan County in the U.S. state of New Mexico. As of the 2010 U.S. Census the city had a total population of 45,877 people. Farmington makes up one of the four Metropolitan Statistical Areas in New Mexico. The U.S...

.

History

This dam was built as part of the Colorado River Storage Project

Colorado River Storage Project

The Colorado River Storage Project is a United States Bureau of Reclamation project designed to oversee the development of the upper Colorado River basin...

, a massive system of dams and reservoirs across the upper Colorado River Basin, by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Although the first studies for a dam on the San Juan were made as early as 1904, it was not considered seriously until the 1930s with the onset of heavy water use in the Colorado watershed. Construction started in 1957 and was completed on September 15, 1962. Today it is one of four major storage facilities for the project – Glen Canyon

Glen Canyon Dam

Glen Canyon Dam is a concrete arch dam on the Colorado River in northern Arizona in the United States, just north of Page. The dam was built to provide hydroelectricity and flow regulation from the upper Colorado River Basin to the lower. Its reservoir is called Lake Powell, and is the second...

, Blue Mesa

Blue Mesa Dam

Blue Mesa Dam is a zoned earthfill dam on the Gunnison River in Colorado. It creates Blue Mesa Reservoir, and is within Curecanti National Recreation Area just before the river enters the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. The dam is upstream of the Morrow Point Dam. Blue Mesa Dam and reservoir are...

 and Flaming Gorge

Flaming Gorge Dam

The Flaming Gorge Dam is a concrete thin-arch dam in the Flaming Gorge of the Green River, a major tributary of the Colorado River, in the U.S. state of Utah. One of the largest dams in the American West, Flaming Gorge Dam forms the Flaming Gorge Reservoir, which extends into southern Wyoming,...

 are the three others.

The construction of the dam and the resulting lake flooded and destroyed one of the Navajos'

Navajo people

The Navajo of the Southwestern United States are the largest single federally recognized tribe of the United States of America. The Navajo Nation has 300,048 enrolled tribal members. The Navajo Nation constitutes an independent governmental body which manages the Navajo Indian reservation in the...

most sacred sites.

Dimensions

The Navajo Dam is 402 feet (122.5 m) high and 3648 feet (1,111.9 m) long. Its crest is at an elevation of 6108 feet (1,861.7 m). The reservoir formed behind the dam, Navajo Lake, is 35 miles (56.3 km) long and stores 1708600 acre.ft of water. The dam has one spillway, an ungated concrete chute capable of discharging 34000 cuft/s.

Power generation

Despite its location on a major river and its massive height, the dam was built solely for storage purposes and thus did not have a power plant when construction was completed in 1962. In 1983, the city of Farmington contracted with Reclamation to build a 32 MW hydroelectric plant at the base of the dam. However, it is obvious that the Navajo Dam has a far greater hydroelectric potential than that.