High Mountain Dams in Bonneville Unit, Big Elk Lake Dam, Kamas, Summit County, UT. Surveyed as HAER UTAH,22-KAM.V,1-A-, with a 594-word written history.
“One of the largest, deepest and most beautiful of the reservoired lakes in the Bonneville Unit, Big Elk Lake is the first Forest Service-approved reservoir in the upper Provo drainage.”
Written record, HAER UTAH,22-KAM.V,1-A- survey. Machine-read text.
Surveyed by the federal HAER program as HAER UTAH,22-KAM.V,1-A- · the record runs 594 words · one of 48 surveyed structures published for this county.
The headings the report itself prints. Each one jumps to where it begins.
Source document Quoted word for word from HAER UTAH,22-KAM.V,1-A-. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.
One of the largest, deepest and most beautiful of the reservoired lakes in the Bonneville Unit, Big Elk Lake is the first Forest Service-approved reservoir in the upper Provo drainage. Its dam -- a representative medium-scale earth-fill structure - is the only one in the drainage constructed by the Washington Irrigation Company and is the only one which is not presently under the management of the Union Reservoir Company. Although completed four years after three other dams in the Bonneville Unit ~ Wall, Washington and Trial - the Big Elk Dam was the first retention structure undertaken in the unit. As such, it is one of the most significant of the high mountain dams in the Bonneville Unit.
Inventoried by: Clayton Fraser and James Jurale Fraserdesign Loveland, Colorado October 16, High Mountain Dams in Bonneville Unit, Big Elk Lake Dam HAER No. UT-41-A (Page 2)
Historical Information
Big Elk Lake is the westernmost of the fifteen reservoired lakes in the Bonneville Unit of the Central Utah Project at the headwater of the Provo River. The sixth largest and second deepest, it is characterized by a shoreline of rocky escarpments dotted with timber. In October the Washington Irrigation Company was granted permission from the Uinta National Forest Reserve (Utah's first - then in existence only nine years) to construct a dam "to maintain the waters of Reservoir No. 1 (Big Elk Lake) at or above the normal level of the lake." By the company had spent reservoiring the lake and estimated it would spend more. Dam construction was completed in Situated picturesquely 10 feet from a precipitous rock ledge, the 300-foot-long dam was 29 feet high and 16 feet wide at its crest.
It features typical earth-fill construction, with hand-placed rock riprap on its sloped faces and an outlet with an inclined headgate embedded in its center. An overflow spillway has been blasted in the stone at the dam's southern end. The proposed alterations to the dam are minor, involving replacement of the outer gate.
Architectural Information
Dam length: 300 feet Dam height: 29 feet Dam width: 16 feet Construct: Earth fill dam with hand-placed stone riprap facing Lake size: acres; acre-foot maximum capacity; 25 vertical foot maximum drawdown Outlet: concrete box with 4' freeboard; rock-faced spillway BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION "Preliminary Engineering Report: Stabilization of High Mountain Lakes, Provo River Drainage," National Park Service Report, page 6. Amendatory Regulations of U.S. Department of the Interior, dated April 25, Washington Irrigation Company Reservoir (Big Elk Lake) File Federal Building, Salt Lake City, Utah. "Stipulations for Reservoir Use," Washington Irrigation Company Reservoir File, W-CNFSO, Federal Building, Salt Lake City, Utah.
Field inspection by Clayton Fraser and Robert Righter, July 24, For additional information, see Irrigation Canals in the Uintah Basin, HAER No. UT-30. High Mountain Dams in Bonneville Unit, Big Elk Lake Dam HAER No. UT-41-A (Page 3) MAXIMUM PFSOPOfjED OMC,IMAL PA hi SxlALE: \*=<*OOl
| Kamas, Utah | The place record: every map, photograph and survey of this town. |
| Summit County, Utah | 98 topographic sheets across the county. |
| Library of Congress record | The original filed report as the survey filed it. |
The federal surveyors worked through Kamas building by building. These are the other structures they measured and filed a report on, longest report first.
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