Skip to main content

87901

Elephant Butte Dam
Society: ASCEMain Category: CivilSub Category: DamsEra: 1910-1919DateCreated: 1916Rio Grande RiverTruth or ConsequencesState: NMZip: 87901Country: USAWebsite: http://www.asce.org/Project/Elephant-Butte-Dam/Creator: Hill, Louis

One of the first major efforts to increase farming and encourage habitation in the arid regions of the western United States, the Rio Grande Project was designed to provide reliable irrigation as well as resolve a dispute over water supply with the Republic of Mexico.  The project's centerpiece is Elephant Butte Dam, a concrete gravity structure 301 feet high and 1,674 feet wide. Elephant Butte Reservoir - with a surface area of 36,600 acres and a capacity of more than 2.2 million acre-feet - was the largest reservoir in the world at the time of its completion.

YearAdded:
1976
Image Credit: Public Domain (United States Bureau of Reclamation)Image Caption: Elephant Butte Dam, 2016 (day before centenial celebration)Era_date_from: 1916
Subscribe to 87901

Innovations

Elephant Butte Dam

One of the first major efforts to increase farming and encourage habitation in the arid regions of the western United States, the Rio Grande Project was designed to provide reliable irrigation as well as resolve a dispute over water supply with the Republic of Mexico.  The project's centerpiece…

Read More

We hope you enjoyed this essay.

Please support America's only magazine of the history of engineering and innovation, and the volunteers that sustain it with a donation to Invention & Technology.

Donate

Stay informed - subscribe to our newsletter.
The subscriber's email address.