The Bartlett Dam is a concrete multiple-arch

buttress dam A buttress dam or hollow dam is a dam with a solid, water-tight upstream side that is supported at intervals on the downstream side by a series of buttresses or supports. The dam wall may be straight or curved. Most buttress dams are made of reinfor ...

on the

Verde River The Verde River ( Yavapai: Haka'he:la) is a major tributary of the Salt River in the U.S. state of Arizona. It is about long and carries a mean flow of at its mouth. It is one of the largest perennial streams in Arizona. Description The ...

, located 50 km northeast of

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1,608,139 residents as of 2020. It is the fifth-most populous city in the United States, and the on ...

. The dam creates

Bartlett Lake Bartlett Lake is a reservoir that was formed by the damming of the Verde River in the U.S. state of Arizona. It is downstream and to the south of Horseshoe Reservoir. Constructed in 1936–39 by the Salt River Project, the Bartlett Dam and rese ...

and its primary purpose is

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has been devel ...

water supply Water supply is the provision of water by public utilities, commercial organisations, community endeavors or by individuals, usually via a system of pumps and pipes. Public water supply systems are crucial to properly functioning societies. Thes ...

. It was the first dam constructed on the Verde River and the first of its type constructed by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. It was built between 1936 and 1939. It was named after Bill Bartlett, a government surveyor. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 2017.

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 1935, the Salt River 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 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 and subsequently, its service

spillway A spillway is a structure used to provide the controlled release of water downstream from a dam or levee, typically into the riverbed of the dammed river itself. In the United Kingdom, they may be known as overflow channels. Spillways ensure th ...

was modified as well to accompany the new height. An unlined auxiliary spillway was also constructed about south of the dam's left abutment. The new spillway consists of a concrete control structure and a three-segment

fuse plug A fuse plug is a collapsible dam installed on spillways in dams to increase the dam's capacity. The principle behind the fuse plug is that the majority of water that overflows a dam's spillway can be safely dammed except in high flood condition ...

which is designed to erode in specific stages during flooding. The modifications to the dam were complete in December 1996.

Specifications

The Bartlett dam consists of 10 arches, 9 buttresses, and is flanked by 2 gravity wing dams. Before being modified, the Bartlett Dam was tall and contained of concrete. After the mid-1990s modification, the dam is tall, made of of concrete, and has a length of . The width of the dam arch's ranges from at its base and at its crest. The reservoir created by the dam,

, has a capacity at the normal surface water elevation of . It drains an area of and has a surface area of . The dam's

outlet works A gatehouse, gate house, outlet works or valve house for a dam is a structure housing sluice gates, valves, or pumps (in which case it is more accurately called a pumping station). Many gatehouses are strictly utilitarian, but especially in the n ...

have a discharge capacity of . When the reservoir is at the maximum water elevation of , the service spillway has a capacity while the auxiliary spillway can discharge up to .

References

External links

SRP Bartlett Dam

U.S. Bureau of Reclamation – Bartlett Dam
* {{Authority control Dams in Arizona Buildings and structures in Maricopa County, Arizona Buttress dams United States Bureau of Reclamation dams Dams completed in 1939 Multiple-arch dams Historic American Engineering Record in Arizona 1939 establishments in Arizona National Register of Historic Places in Maricopa County, Arizona Dams on the National Register of Historic Places in Arizona