Theodore Roosevelt Dam

A couple weeks ago, we chatted about the awesome Chicago Water Tower.  While digging up a little information on that, I discovered that the American Water Works Association has been naming American Water Landmarks since 1969.  Some years there are multiple winners, and 1969 was a long time ago.  OK, OK, maybe 1969 is not that long ago, but still, the list is long.  Since we think water is pretty cool over here at B&M, I thought it'd be interesting to write about some of these landmarks every now and then.  Today I picked another 1969 winner, the Theodore Roosevelt Dam.

Back in 1905, before Arizona became a state, the first major project that the newly created U.S. Reclamation Service (now the Bureau of Reclamation) took on was the creation of the Theodore Roosevelt Dam.  The U.S. Reclamation Service was created by President Theodore Roosevelt to facilitate water management projects across the United States.  The original scope and purpose of the project was to provide water storage and flood control through the Salt River Valley.  In 1906, Congress expanded the project to allow for the production and selling of hydroelectric power generated by the dam.

The Theodore Roosevelt Dam is located about 76 miles northeast of Phoenix and 30 miles northwest of Globe, Arizona.  The project was so important to local agriculture that the Salt River Valley Water Users' Association (created by Phoenix area farmers) offered their land as collateral to finance the $10 million project.  The project started in 1905 and was suppose to be completed in two years.  It took three times that due to flooding and washouts.  I can only imagine how frustrating this project would have been to all the people involved in the process.

Structurally, the project faced challenges as well.  According to the Bureau of Reclamation:

A challenging aspect of the Theodore Roosevelt Dam modification project was designing a concrete overlay for the dam that would be compatible with the underlying masonry structure. The Bureau of Reclamation chose a single-curvature approach using conventional mass concrete placed in 10-feet high, 70-feet wide blocks, ranging in thickness from 10 to 50 feet. The first concrete block was placed in September 1992 and the final block was placed June 28, 1995 raising the dam to 357 feet tall. The additional 77 feet of dam height increased the water conservation storage capacity by 20 percent and provides for more than 1.8 million acre-feet of flood storage. The new mass concrete blocks with vertical joints were placed as alternating odd-even cantilevers. Reclamation's quality control testing program requires close inspection of the concrete batching and placing operations, and regular testing of cast concrete and concrete components. Mass concrete compressive strengths average 800 pounds per square inch in seven days based on 12 by 24 inch cylinders, and 4,500 pounds per square inch in one year based on 12 inch cores. (source)

Finally completed in 1911, President Roosevelt himself traveled to dedicate the largest masonry dam and manmade lake of it's time.  It stands 280 feet tall and was built from 344,000 cubic yards of masonry stone and a sub-equal volume of cement.  Originally, the dam was known as Salt River Dam #1, and the dam and lake were only officially renamed after President Roosevelt in 1959.

Hydroelectric plant constructed with the dam.

At the time, electricity was so new and such a novelty that President Roosevelt made a point of warning children about the dangers of climbing, hanging, and playing on powerlines at the time of the dedication; "The Reclamation Service gives warning to everybody between here and Theodore Roosevelt, that the power is likely to be turned on. The warning is now given that there is danger and plenty of it, and if the warning is not heeded somebody may be killed. Parents will do well to impress these facts on their children."  Although initially just providing electricity for a few customers, 5 renovations later the dam still stands today and provides electricity for close to a million customers.

Sources:
Wikipedia: Theodore Roosevelt Dam  
Bureau of Reclamation: A Brief History of the Roosevelt Dam
Bureau of Reclamation: Theodore Roosevelt DamThe Arizona Experience: Theodore Roosevelt Dam: A Century of Power
Arizona Daily Star: Photo Gallery: Theodore Roosevelt Dam Today

Click directly on images for original sources.