Lahontan Dam and Power Station
SW of Fallon, Fallon, NVThe Newlands Reclamation Project is of national historical significance because it was one of the first five projects authorized by the Director of the Reclamation Service under the Newlands Reclamation Act of 1902.
The project design was the result of investigations begun by the United States Geological Survey in 1889. When the United States Reclamation Service was organized, shortly after the National Reclamation Act of 1902, the Truckee-Carson Project was among the first five projects selected for construction. The Secretary of the Interior authorized the project on March 14, 1903, and construction began the same year. Project features shown in the accompanying drawings, include outlet works at Lake Tahoe; Derby Diversion Dam (placed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1978), Lahontan Dam Reservoir and Power plant; Carson River Diversion Dam; 104 miles of main canals; 504 miles of laterals; and 335 miles of open drains. Most of the features are located in ancient Lake Lahontan which was named for Baron La Hontan, an early western explorer.
Lahontan Power plant was finished November 11, 1911. Using the fall from the Truckee Canal to the Carson River, the plant supplied electric power for most of the construction of Lahontan Dam (begun in January 1911). Electric motors powered the main borrowpit shovel, a drag-line excavator, a 925 foot belt conveyor to transport gravel and soil to the main embankment, the sand-cement batching plant, a 1,600 foot cable-way for transporting concrete, and numerous pumps, blowers, drills and conveyors. According to the project manager, D. W. Cole, "probably the first electric shovel was employed on this work and handled the 500,000 cubic yards of gravel at a cost very much below what a steam shovel would have shown at the local prices for coal" (Engineering News, vol. 73, April 22, 1915, p. 760). The electrical machinery proved highly effective and dam construction was completed in June 1915.
The original scope of the Truckee-Carson Project included irrigation of over 400,000 acres. The Omnibus Adjustment Act of 1926 contained a provision that reduced the project scope considerably. In recent years about 70,000 acres have been under irrigation of which 60,000 to 65,000 acres are under irrigation at any one time.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1981.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.