Owyhee Dam

Highest dam in the world 1932-1934

The Owyhee Dam is a dam in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Oregon. The arch-gravity dam made ​​of concrete was completed in 1932. In a hydroelectric power plant electricity is generated and also serves the water of irrigation in several districts in Oregon and adjacent Idaho. When completed, the dam was to build the Chambon dam in 1934 in France with 137 meters height, the highest in the world. They overtook the 119 -meter-high Diablo Dam. The Owyhee River is dammed to Owyhee Reservoir with a capacity of 1480 million cubic meters. About the dam, a road leads.

The catchment area extends across eastern Oregon and western Idaho.

Owyhee served as a model for the larger Hoover Dam on the Colorado, including the concrete cooling during construction. The dam cost $ 6,000,000, the entire irrigation project 18 million. The Owyhee Dam was designed by Frank A. Banks, who also built other dams like the Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River.

From 1990 to 1993, the dam was rebuilt. Already in the 1980's, the possibility of generation of electric power has been established.

Without a fish ladder built, the dam blocks the salmon migration all the way up to Nevada.