This dam was built to help fulfill San Juan River water rights claims of the Navajo Nation. [Facebook comment below]
The powerhouse went online in 1989, and it has two units of 15mw each. The average annual production is 93gwh. [hydroreform]
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| usbr "The dam is a rolled earthfill embankment with a structural height of 402 feet [123m] and a crest length of 3,648 feet [1.1km]. The dam contains 26,840,863 cubic yards of materials. The top width of the dam is 30 feet [9m], and the maximum base width is 2,566 feet [0.8km]....When filled, the reservoir occupies 15,610 acres, with a total capacity of 1, 708,600 acre-feet and an active capacity of 1,036,100 acre-feet." The original construction was 1957-63. The "modified construction" was 1970. [I wonder what the modification was.] |
One of the rare dams that has a road built on the face of a dam.
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| Street View, May 2019 |
Deadpool is 5775, conservation pool is 5999, spillway crest is 6085, maximum water surface 6101.6 and crest elevation is 6108. Outlet works capacity is 4,200cfs at 6101.6. [usbr, details tab]
That webpage also specifies a "Normal Water Surface Elevation of 6106.6." That cannot be correct. This is the maximum water surface and less than 2' from the top of the dam! The normal level is probably the conservation pool level of 5999.
And the webpage specifies the Spillway Capacity as 34,000 cfs at 6085'. That also can't be correct. When the water is at the spillway crest elevation, there would be barely a trickle because it is a fixed weir spillway. The correct figure for the spillway capacity would be the maximum water surface of 6101.6'. In fact, their overview says: "The design capacity at maximum water surface elevation is 34,000 cubic feet per second."
It is always interesting to see what kind of trucks were used to haul the material. They look like belly-dump trucks.
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| usbr_uc "Both cold and warm water game fish species can be found in Navajo Reservoir....Hunters can take advantage of deer, elk, and duck hunting in the hills around the reservoir and along the marshy areas along the San Juan River below the dam." |
The powerhouse was being built in 1977.
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| usbr_uc |
The powerhouse went online in 1989, and it has two units of 15mw each. The average annual production is 93gwh. [hydroreform]
It is interesting that, in this day and age of "green power," the USBR webpages don't provide a capacity figure. I would expect them to be bragging about the hydropower.
And they added a diaphragm wall in 1987.That must mean that the usbr was still building earth dams in the 1960s without a non-permeable core.
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| usbr_uc |
San Juan County Historical Society posted five images with the comment:
Navajo Dam was not always the name of the site of that massive barrier on the San Juan River.In November 1949, newspapers throughout the west reported that the Upper Colorado River Commission and the Colorado River Basin States Committee had recommended that several dams be built along the rivers of the upper Colorado River basin. One of those dams was identified as the Martinez Dam. It was to be located just below the junction of the San Juan and Pine Rivers. Other damsites approved at the meeting included the Flaming Gorge site in Utah, Glen Canyon in northern Arizona and a multi-dam unit on Colorado’s Gunnison River.The name “Martinez Dam” was used because one of the closest villages to the proposed site was Los Martinez. (The village of Los Pinos was located just above the proposed dam.) In July 1950, the Navajo Tribal Council approved a resolution recommending that the new dam be named Navajo Dam. The construction of the dam would be a key component in satisfying the San Juan River water rights claims of the Navajo Nation. The name “Navajo Dam” was quickly adopted and by 1951 the new name began to take precedence in newspapers accounts.On March 1, 1956, Congress voted to authorize construction of the Colorado River Storage Project. Over the next two years each state involved began bickering over the division and disbursement of funds. Finally, in the spring of 1958, the Navajo Dam project received funding. On June 19, 1958 contractors, government officials and onlookers crowded into the gymnasium at Farmington’s Apache Elementary. The Daily Times estimated that 800 packed into and overflowed out of the tiny gym. This was the site for the opening of bids for the immense project. A consortium of three companies (Morrison-Knudsen, Henry J. Kaiser and F and S Contracting Company) made the low bid. Less than a month later, the contractors began accepting applications at their office three blocks north of Main Street on Hutton. Construction was slated to begin on July 28, 1958.The widely dispersed farming community of Los Martinez was one of several similar villages obliterated by the construction of Navajo Dam. The only remnants of Los Martinez left are the Our Lady of Guadalupe (Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe) Catholic Church just below the dam and the small cemetery adjacent to the church. The houses, outbuildings and other structures that comprised the village are gone. Even the farm land is gone, scraped away by earth moving equipment and hauled away to create what at the time would be the third largest earth-filled dam in the United States. [Was the top soil black dirt like Illinois or desert clay?] The church and cemetery sit on promontory above the scraped away farm land.The contractors worked at a rapid pace and on June 27, 1962 the dam outlets were squeezed down so less water was released than was coming into the reservoir. The San Juan had been tamed and the filling of Navajo Reservoir began. On September 15, 1962, a crowd estimated at 5000 gathered on the mesa north of the dam for the dedication ceremony. Secretary of the Interior, Stewart Udall, gave the keynote address.Written by Mike Maddox. Note: The Echo Park Dam was one of the original dams proposed for the Colorado River Storage Project. It would have inundated Dinosaur National Monument in Utah and Colorado. It was eventually dropped from the plan. Also of note: The San Juan County Historical Society has published two books concerning the families displaced by the construction of Navajo Dam. The Lost Communities of Navajo Dam, Vol. 1: Los Martinez and Vol. 2: Los Pinos, Rosa and Los Arboles both by Patricia Boddy Tharp. Books published by the Historical Society can be found at the Farmington Museum in Farmington, the Aztec Museum (closed in the colder months) and at the Historical Society’s offices at 201 N. Main in Aztec. The Historical Society is open Wednesday from 10AM to Noon, Friday from 2PM to 4PM and Saturday from 10AM to Noon. As we are an all volunteer outfit, it is best to call first and confirm that we are open. Our phone number is 505-334-7136. Sources: Aztec Independent Review, Farmington Daily Times, Santa Fe New Mexican, Clovis News Journal, Arizona Republic.
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| 1 Aztec Independent Review, Feb 19, 1951. The name Martinez Dam persisted into 1951. |
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| 2 A view of the Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church at the now gone village of Los Martinez below Navajo Dam. |
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| 3 Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, below Navajo Dam in February 2021. |
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| 4 October 1958 – The early days of construction of Navajo Dam. That is H.D. “Pinky” Gard, General Supt. of the project. |
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| 5 September 15, 1962 – The crowd at the dedication of Navajo Dam. |
In addition to modifications in 1970 and 1987, it needs another modification.
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| Colorado River Basin posted Heads up, travelers: NM Highway 511 over Navajo Dam (about 45 miles east of Farmington, New Mexico) will have just one lane open beginning tomorrow, Jan. 13, [2026] until May 20 due to maintenance work on the dam. Temporary traffic signals will manage alternating one-way traffic, so expect minor delays and follow posted signs and crews on site. The work supports ongoing Safety of Dams studies to continue exploratory drilling to better understand and address seepage at Navajo Dam. The road is expected to reopen to two-way traffic before peak recreation season in late May. 📸 Aerial image of Navajo Dam Jeffrey Farrar: That dam has a big history of seepage problems. They had to install a cutoff wall in it.. |
