Elephant Butte Dam


Elephant Butte Dam or Elephant Butte Dike is a concrete gravity dam on the Rio Grande river near Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. The dam impounds Elephant Butte Reservoir, which is used mainly for agriculture, and also provides for recreation, hydroelectricity and flood 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 released only during the summer irrigation season, or during times of exceptionally heavy snow melt.

History

The first to propose a dam for the area were Peter E. Kern, E.V. Berrien, John Campbell, R.M. Loomis and Edward Roberts. They had camped in the area where the dam is now and Kern encouraged the others to consider building a dam there.
The dam is part of the Rio Grande Project, a project to provide power and irrigation to south-central New Mexico and west Texas. The United States Congress authorized construction of the dam on February 25, 1905 and it began in 1911. It was completed in 1916 but allowed to begin filling in 1915.
At the time of its construction, the dam was the largest irrigation dam ever built with the exception of the Aswan Dam in Egypt. It was expected that the dam would become the property of the local settlers once a water tax had reimbursed the government for the cost of construction. During construction the government used a system of 3 cables, each having a capacity of 15 tons and a span of.
The name "Elephant Butte" refers to a volcanic core similar to Devils Tower in Wyoming. It is now an island in the lake. The butte was said to have the shape of an elephant.
The dam was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1979. Historic resources from the era of construction of the dam, and from New Deal era development of power generation and recreation facilities in the area, are recognized in the 1997 listing of a area on the National Register as the Elephant Butte Historic District. The historic district listing includes the dam itself and much more.

Characteristics

Elephant Butte Dam is 301 feet high, 1,674 feet long including the spillway and is made from 618,785 cubic yards of concrete. The width at the top of the dam is 18 feet and 228 feet at the base.
The reservoir has a capacity of of water and controls the runoff from 28,900 square miles. It provides irrigation to 178,000 acres of land. The dam also contains a 27,945-kilowatt hydroelectric powerplant. The current turbine was installed in 1940 and generates 38,449,061 kWh per year. The crest elevation is 4390 ft.