Bartlett Dam - History

History

In response to the Great Depression and subsequent drops in crop prices, farmers struggled harder to have a dam constructed on the Verde River. Finally in the 1935, the Salt Water Project received approval to build the Bartlett Dam. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation constructed the dam between 1936 and 1939, in a total of 1,000 days. Upon completion, the dam was the tallest multiple arch buttress type in the world at the time. 80% of the funding for the dam was provided by the Salt River Project (SRP) and 20% by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Construction on the dam provided needed jobs and flood control on the river. Although flood waters temporarily halted the dam's construction in February, 1937, flooding was finally minimized with the construction of the dam. The next large flood in the area would not come until the winter of 1965-66.

Because of safety concerns, the dam was later modified during the mid-1990s by the Bureau of Reclamation. Beginning in March 1994, the dam was raised 21.5 feet (6.6 m) and subsequently, its service spillway was modified as well to accompany the new height. An unlined auxiliary spillway was also constructed about 1,500 feet (460 m) south of the dam's left abutment. The new spillway consists of a concrete control structure and a three-segment fuse plug which is designed to erode in specific stages during flooding. The modifications to the dam were complete in December 1996.