Lucky Peak Dam is a rolled earth and gravel fill embankment

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use ...

in the

western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

United States, located on the Boise River in

southwestern The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyomi ...

. In

Ada County Ada County is located in the southwestern part of Idaho, United States. As of the 2021 United States census estimate, the county had a population of 511,931, making it by far the state's most populous county; it is home to 26.8% of the state's p ...

east of

Boise Boise (, , ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho and is the county seat of Ada County. On the Boise River in southwestern Idaho, it is east of the Oregon border and north of the Nevada border. The downtown area' ...

, it is directly downstream of

Arrowrock Dam Arrowrock Dam is a concrete arch dam in the western United States, on the Boise River in southwestern Idaho, east of Boise. Opened in 1915, it is located on the border of Boise and Elmore counties, upstream of the Lucky Peak Dam and reservoi ...

, a concrete arch dam completed in 1915. At the time of its construction in the early 1950s, Lucky Peak's primary purpose was

flood control Flood control methods are used to reduce or prevent the detrimental effects of flood waters."Flood Control", MSN Encarta, 2008 (see below: Further reading). Flood relief methods are used to reduce the effects of flood waters or high water level ...

, with a secondary purpose of The normal operating

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Ver ...

of the full reservoir is above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardise ...

, the empty reservoir's elevation (Boise River) is Construction began in November 1949 by the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

Corps of Engineers; many men were lost blasting the mountain. Most had no experience with dynamite. They brought in Clifford Riddle who was an expert in dynamite. Clifford had settled his wife and sons in the Boise Valley. Clifford carved the crucial operational curve of the road to reach the reservoir called Lucky Peak Lake. Most of the federal dams in southern Idaho, including the others on the Boise River, were built by the

Bureau of Reclamation The Bureau of Reclamation, and formerly the United States Reclamation Service, is a federal agency under the U.S. Department of the Interior, which oversees water resource management, specifically as it applies to the oversight and opera ...

, not the Corps of Engineers. The

Idaho Power Company Idaho Power Company (IPC) is a regulated electrical power utility. Its business involves the purchase, sale, generation, transmission and distribution of electricity in eastern Oregon and southern Idaho. It is a subsidiary of IDACORP, Inc. The c ...

, a private

utility As a topic of economics, utility is used to model worth or value. Its usage has evolved significantly over time. The term was introduced initially as a measure of pleasure or happiness as part of the theory of utilitarianism by moral philosoph ...

, built multiple hydroelectric dams on the Located along State Highway 21, upstream from the city of

, it was built without hydroelectric power generation. Construction of the powerhouse began in 1984 and it became operational in 1988, generating electricity primarily for The dam was named after a nearby mountain in the Boise Range, about north of the dam (). The summit elevation of Lucky Peak mountain (a.k.a. Shaw Mountain) is . The dam forms Lucky Peak Lake and is surrounded by Lucky Peak State Park. The dam is also in close proximity to the Lucky Peak Dam Zeolite Occurrence.

Gallery

File:Lucky Peak Dam Idaho.JPG, Lucky Peak Dam File:Lucky Peak Reservoir Idaho.JPG, Lucky Peak Lake from Idaho highway 21 Image:Lucky peak.jpg, Lucky Peak Lake in April 2010

References

External links

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
- Lucky Peak Dam & Lake

- Idaho facilities * ttp://www.seattle.gov/light/history/brief.asp Seattle City Light- a brief history
Bureau of Reclamation
- major storage reservoirs in the Boise & Payette River basins - current levels & flows {{Authority control Dams in Idaho Hydroelectric power plants in Idaho Buildings and structures in Ada County, Idaho Rock-filled dams United States Army Corps of Engineers dams Dams completed in 1955 Energy infrastructure completed in 1988 Dams on the Boise River 1955 establishments in Idaho