Official name Oahe Dam Opening date 1962 Height 75 m Length 2,853 m Construction cost 340 million USD | Construction began 1948 Impounds Missouri River Opened 1962 Create Lake Oahe | |
Location Hughes / Stanley counties, South Dakota, USA Type of dam flood control, earthfill Operator United States Army Corps of Engineers Similar Big Bend Dam, Fort Randall Dam, Garrison Dam, Gavins Point Dam, Fort Peck Dam | ||
Oahe dam 140 000 cfs cubic feet per second release missouri river
The Oahe Dam is a large dam along the Missouri River, just north of Pierre, South Dakota in the United States. It creates Lake Oahe, the fourth largest artificial reservoir in the United States, which stretches 231 miles (372 km) up the course of the Missouri to Bismarck, North Dakota. The dam's powerplant provides electricity for much of the north-central United States. It is named for the Oahe Indian Mission established among the Lakota Sioux in 1874. The project provides flood control, electric power, irrigation, and navigation benefits, estimated by the Corps of Engineers at $150,000,000 per year.
Contents
- Oahe dam 140 000 cfs cubic feet per second release missouri river
- Map of Oahe Dam Fort Pierre SD 57532 USA
- Pierre ft pierre flood of 2011 oahe dam and spillway
- History
- Statistics
- Tours
- Native American displacement
- 2011 flooding
- References
Map of Oahe Dam, Fort Pierre, SD 57532, USA
Pierre ft pierre flood of 2011 oahe dam and spillway
History
In September and October 1804, the Lewis and Clark Expedition passed through what is now Lake Oahe while exploring the Missouri River.
Oahe Dam was authorized by the Flood Control Act of 1944, and construction by the United States Army Corps of Engineers began in 1948. The world’s first rock tunnel boring machine (TBM) was invented in 1952 by James S. Robbins for the Oahe Dam project, which marked the beginning of machines replacing human tunnelers. The earth main dam reached its full height in October 1959. It was officially dedicated by President John F. Kennedy on August 17, 1962, the year in which it began generating power. The original project cost was $340,000,000.
Statistics
Tours
Tours of the powerplant are given daily, Memorial Day through Labor Day.
Native American displacement
As a result of the dam's construction the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation lost 150,000 acres (61,000 hectares) bringing it down to 2,850,000 acres (1,150,000 ha) today. Standing Rock Reservation lost 55,993 acres (22,660 ha) leaving it with 2,300,000 acres (930,000 ha). Much of the land was taken by eminent domain claims made by the Bureau of Reclamation. Over and above the land loss, most of the reservations' prime agricultural land was included in the loss. The regions where the populations were resettled had soil with a higher clay content, and resources such as medicinal plants were less prevalent.
The loss of this land had a dramatic effect on the Indians who lived on the reservations. Most of the land was unable to be harvested (to allow the trees to be cut down for wood, etc.) before the land was flooded over with water. One visitor to the reservations later asked why there were so few older Indians on the reservations, and was told that "the old people had died of heartache" after the construction of the dam and the loss of the reservations' land. As of 2015, poverty remains a problem for the displaced populations in the Dakotas, who are still seeking compensation for the loss of the towns submerged under Lake Oahe, and the loss of their traditional ways of life.
Huff Archeological Site is a fortified Mandan village site on what is now the bank of Lake Oahe. It is designated a National Historic Landmark, but is endangered by erosion pressure from the lake.
2011 flooding
Excessive precipitation in the spring, along with melting snow from the Rocky Mountains forced the dam to open the release gates (not the spillway), releasing 110,000 cu ft/s (3,115 m3/s) in June with another 50,000 cu ft/s (1,416 m3/s) through the power plant totaling 160,000 cu ft/s (4,531 m3/s). The previous release record was 53,900 cu ft/s (1,526 m3/s) in 1997.