Glen Canyon Dam

The Glen Canyon Dam

Glen Canyon Dam is a large dam on the Colorado River. It is in Page, Arizona. The dam is 583 feet high and it is 1,560 feet wide. It creates Lake Powell which is 186 miles long. The purpose of the dam is to create electricity and to prevent floods. The reservoir can store 27 million acre-feet of water (which is the amount of water that can cover one acre to 1 foot deep). Construction of the dam began in 1956. It was able to begin storing the flow of the river in 1963.

Glen Canyon Dam Media

• 

  Panorama of Glen Canyon Dam showing Lake Powell, Glen Canyon Dam and Carl Hayden Visitor Center

• 

  A boater on the river in Glen Canyon before damming, circa 1898.

• 

  Map showing locations of major dams in the Colorado River Basin, with Glen Canyon near the center of the basin.

• 

  Echo Park, looking south with the Yampa River (left) joining the Green River. The USBR proposed damming the Green a short distance downstream, behind the large cliff (Steamboat Rock) at right.

• 

  Near Music Temple in Glen Canyon during the 1870s

• 

  Glen Canyon damsite from the air in November 1957, prior to construction of the Glen Canyon Bridge

• 

  Architectural plans for the Glen Canyon Dam and ancillary structures

• 

  Glen Canyon Dam under construction, 1962

• 

  Lake Powell filling underway, 1965

• 

  Glen Canyon Dam releasing floodwater in 1984, testing repairs of the spillways which were heavily damaged in 1983.

Other websites

• Glen Canyon National Recreation Area Archived 2006-07-20 at the Wayback Machine
• Glen Canyon Dam page from the Bureau of Reclamation Archived 2009-05-13 at the Wayback Machine
• Images of Glen Canyon before it was flooded Archived 2008-02-10 at the Wayback Machine
• Article by David Brower on restoring Glen Canyon Archived 2013-05-15 at the Wayback Machine
• The Glen Canyon Institute
• 1995 Glen Canyon EIS Archived 2013-02-22 at the Wayback Machine
• New Environmental Impact Assessment of the Glen Canyon Dam (2006) Archived 2008-03-09 at the Wayback Machine