High Mountain Dams in Upalco Unit, Twin Pots Dam, Ashley National Forest, 10.1 miles North of Mountain Home, Mountain Home

Source document Quoted word for word from HAER UTAH,7-MOHO.V,1-M-. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

At the time of its initial construction in the Twin Pots Dam not only held the largest body of impounded water in the Upalco Unit, it was the first successful attempt to impound running water and create a manmade reservoir. The Twin Pots Reservoir produced a significant increase of irrigation water storage for the Farnsworth company and allowed the expansion of farming in the Mountain Farm area, served by the Farnsworth Canal. The reconstructed dam is an undistinguished, but representative, example of the relatively unsophisticated earth-fill dam technology found in the Unitah Mountains. Inventoried by: Clayton Fraser and James Jurale Fraserdesign Loveland, Colorado October 20, High Mountain Dams in Upalco Unit, Twin Pots Dam HAER No. UT-42-M (Page 2)

Historical Information

Following the drought years of and stockholders of the Farnsworth Canal and Reservoir Company approved the construction of the Twin Pots Dam to store water for irrigation. The reservoir, located on the west bank of the Lake Fork River about four miles downstream from Moon Lake, was situated in a large grassy natural bowl. This was not an existing lake like the other water storage reservoirs in the Upalco Unit, but a reservoir which was created by building an earth-fill dam across the natural outlet on the bowl's north end. The land occupied by the reservoir was purchased from the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the Utah State Engineer approved filings to store water on it. Farnsworth contracted with Austin G. Burton, a shareholder in the company, to engineer the dam.

The small structure, completed in was constructed of dirt fill with sorted rock. Without a compacted clay core, it was too porous, however, and burst in A new clay-core dam was completed on the site in for a reported cost of Still leaking the Twin Pots Dam remains in functional condition today.

Biographical Information

Albert E. Blood, "Report on Application for Special Use Permit," dated June 17, Twin Pots Overflow File, ANFRDRO, Roosevelt, Utah. Planning Support Group for the BIA, "The Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation; Its Resources, Development Potential," Billings, Montana, February 4, Report No. Miscellaneous files, UIP Warehouse, Fort Duchesne, Utah, page 82. Field inspection by Clayton Fraser, July 22, For additional Information, see Irrigation Canals in the Uinta Basin, HAER No.