The Coolidge Dam is a reinforced concrete multiple dome and buttress dam 31 miles (50 km) southeast of Globe, Arizona on the Gila River. Built between 1924 and 1928, the Coolidge Dam was part of the San Carlos Irrigation Project. Coolidge Dam was named after the 30th US President, Calvin Coolidge and was dedicated by President Coolidge on March 4, 1930. The design and construction engineer was Herman Neuffer, who oversaw much of the construction undertaken by the Bureau during the 1920s in Arizona and New Mexico.
Coolidge Dam impounds San Carlos Lake in the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation. The project irrigates 100,000 acres (40,000 ha).
Since the water is impounded so it can be released when farmers need it, San Carlos Lake is often at a low level except in wet periods. When former President Coolidge dedicated the dam in 1930, the dam had not begun to fill. Cherokee humorist Will Rogers looked at the grass in the lake bed, and said, “If this were my dam, I’d mow it.”
Famous quotes containing the words coolidge and/or dam:
“I suggested to them also the great desirability of a general knowledge on the Island of the English language. They are under an English speaking government and are a part of the territory of an English speaking nation.... While I appreciated the desirability of maintaining their grasp on the Spanish language, the beauty of that language and the richness of its literature, that as a practical matter for them it was quite necessary to have a good comprehension of English.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)
“The devil take one party and his dam the other!”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)