Conconully Dam (National ID # WA00259) is a dam in

Okanogan County, Washington Okanogan County () is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington along the Canada–U.S. border. As of the 2020 census, the population was 42,104. The county seat is Okanogan, while the largest city is Omak. Its area is the largest i ...

, United States. The earthen dam was initially constructed at a height of in 1910 and 1911 by the

United States 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 ...

, during the first generation of the Bureau's activity, then raised in 1920 and reconstructed in 1969. The dam's current height is 72 feet and it is long at its crest. Conconully Dam impounds Salmon Creek for flood control and irrigation storage, part of the larger Okanogan Project. 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 artist ...

on September 6, 1974. The adjacent 1921 Salmon Lake Dam and its reservoir, Conconully Lake, are also part of the same project. Both are owned by the Bureau and operated by the local Okanogan Irrigation District. The Conconully Reservoir has a normal water surface area of 550 acres and a maximum storage capacity of 13,000

acre-feet The acre-foot is a non- SI unit of volume equal to about commonly used in the United States in reference to large-scale water resources, such as reservoirs, aqueducts, canals, sewer flow capacity, irrigation water, and river flows. An acre-f ...

. Recreation includes fishing (for

rainbow trout The rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') is a species of trout native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in Asia and North America. The steelhead (sometimes called "steelhead trout") is an anadromous (sea-run) form of the coast ...

cutthroat trout The cutthroat trout is a fish species of the family Salmonidae native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific Ocean, Rocky Mountains, and Great Basin in North America. As a member of the genus ''Oncorhynchus'', it is one of the Pacific ...

and smallmouth bass), boating, camping, hiking and wildlife viewing.

Conconully State Park Conconully State Park is a public recreation area located at the north end of Conconully Reservoir in the town of Conconully, Okanogan County, Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., ...

and Conconully National Wildlife Refuge are also nearby.

History

The construction of the dam was interrupted by a strike in July 1909. The construction workers were offered a twenty-five cent per day pay increase but demanded fifty cents. Notice of the strike was published in the ''

Industrial Worker The ''Industrial Worker'', "the voice of revolutionary industrial unionism", is the magazine of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). It is currently released quarterly. The publication is printed and edited by union labor, and is frequently ...

'', a weekly newspaper of the

Industrial Workers of the World The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), members of which are commonly termed "Wobblies", is an international labor union that was founded in Chicago in 1905. The origin of the nickname "Wobblies" is uncertain. IWW ideology combines gener ...

published out of

Spokane Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Canada ...

References

{{authority control 1911 establishments in Washington (state) Dams completed in 1911 Dams on the National Register of Historic Places in Washington (state) Lakes of Okanogan County, Washington Reservoirs in Washington (state) United States Bureau of Reclamation dams National Register of Historic Places in Okanogan County, Washington