Morris Reservoir is located in the

San Gabriel Mountains The San Gabriel Mountains () are a mountain range located in Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties, California, United States. The mountain range is part of the Transverse Ranges and lies between the Los Angeles Basin and the Mojave Desert ...

, within the

Angeles National Forest The Angeles National Forest (ANF) of the United States Forest Service is located in the San Gabriel Mountains and Sierra Pelona Mountains, primarily within Los Angeles County in Southern California. The ANF manages a majority of the San Gabri ...

, in

Los Angeles County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles and sometimes abbreviated as LA County, is the most populous county in the United States, with 9,663,345 residents estimated in 2023. Its population is greater than that of 40 individua ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. It is impounded by Morris Dam, which was completed in 1935. Morris Dam is a gravity dam rising above the San Gabriel River stream bed.

Geography

The reservoir is located alongside California State Route 39, approximately north of the city of

Azusa AZUSA refers to a ground-based radar tracking system installed at Cape Canaveral, Florida and the NASA Kennedy Space Center. AZUSA was named after the southern California town Azusa, California where the system was devised in the early 1950s. ...

. Morris Reservoir is just downstream from the San Gabriel Dam. The mean water elevation is about , when the reservoir is at capacity.

Morris Reservoir Naval Weapons Test Site

The reservoir and its slopes were the Morris Reservoir Naval Weapons Test Site, a naval weapons test facility, from World War II through the 1990s.The Center for Land Use Interpretation: Morris Reservoir Naval Weapons Test Site
— history . accessed 7.14.2014 The reservoir was transferred to the

Los Angeles County Department of Public Works The Los Angeles County Department of Public Works (LACDPW) is responsible for the construction and operation of Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County's roads, building code, building safety, Sewage collection and disposal, sewerage, an ...

in 1995. The test facility was established by

Caltech The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private university, private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small g ...

, which was developing weapons for the Navy at its Naval Ordnance Test Station (NOTS) at China Lake (town), near

Ridgecrest, California Ridgecrest is a city in Kern County, California, United States, along U.S. Route 395 in California, U.S. Route 395 in the Indian Wells Valley in northeastern Kern County, adjacent to the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake (NAWS, or China Lake) ...

. It today is now known as the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, and is still the primary proving ground for naval weapons systems. Because China Lake is a dry lake in the

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert (; ; ) is a desert in the rain shadow of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains and Transverse Ranges in the Southwestern United States. Named for the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous Mohave people, it is located pr ...

, Caltech opened this substation at the Morris Reservoir, near their campus, north of Azusa in the San Gabriel Mountains. This site was used especially for the development of submarine-based warfare systems, including torpedoes, bombs, and submarine-launched missiles like the Polaris rocket, the first ballistic missile that could be launched from submerged submarines. Most of the buildings at the site have been removed, and the site is being restored to a "natural" state, and may once again be open to the public.

References

External links

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The Caltech Archives: Morris Dam reservoir, San Gabriel MountainsMorris Dam Water Supply Enhancement Project
Final Initial Study and Mitigated Negative Declaration
Morris Dam valve leakage photoMorris Dam data
Reservoirs in Los Angeles County, California San Gabriel Mountains San Gabriel River (California) Angeles National Forest Azusa, California Los Angeles County Department of Public Works 1935 establishments in California Systems command installations of the United States Navy Military installations in Los Angeles County, California 1940s establishments in California 1990s disestablishments in California Historic American Engineering Record in California Reservoirs in California Reservoirs in Southern California {{LosAngelesCountyCA-geo-stub

Geography

Morris Reservoir Naval Weapons Test Site

See also

References

External links