Sumner Dam is a dam on the

Pecos River The Pecos River ( es, Río Pecos) originates in north-central New Mexico and flows into Texas, emptying into the Rio Grande. Its headwaters are on the eastern slope of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range in Mora County north of Pecos, New Mexico ...

in De Baca County in eastern

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe, New Mexico, Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque, New Mexico, Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Albuquerque metropolitan area, Tiguex , Offi ...

. The dam was built 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 ...

between 1935 and 1939, a project governed by the Bureau in conjunction with the local Carlsbad Irrigation District. Construction was done by the Bureau with the help of workers of the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, in ...

and the

Civilian Conservation Corps The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was a major part o ...

; some remnants of their artistic rockwork are the five rock bridges on the main road on the east side of the lake. The dam is 164 feet tall and impounds the Pecos with a total capacity of about 43,800

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 ...

. The resulting reservoir, Lake Sumner, is the location of the community of

Lake Sumner, New Mexico Lake Sumner is a census-designated place (CDP) in De Baca County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 143 at the 2010 census, up from the figure of 86 recorded in 2000. Geography Lake Sumner is located in northern De Baca County at ...

, and of Sumner Lake State Park. The state park was established in 1966 on a 50-year lease from the Bureau of Reclamation (expiring in 2016), and originally called Alamogordo Lake State Park. The lake was completely drained for irrigation needs in 2001, destroying fish stocks, but recreational use has since rebounded. The state park is unusual in providing public access to the riparian area below the dam.

References

{{authority control Dams in New Mexico Reservoirs in New Mexico United States Bureau of Reclamation dams Buildings and structures in De Baca County, New Mexico Bodies of water of De Baca County, New Mexico Works Progress Administration in New Mexico Civilian Conservation Corps in New Mexico Dams completed in 1939 Dams on the Pecos River 1939 establishments in New Mexico