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Show Page 20 The OGDEN VALLEY NEWS Volume II, Issue III December 1999 Pineview Dam and Reservoir Compiled by Shanna Francis Irrigation in the Weber Basin was started by the first settlers in 1848. Lacking storage facilities, early development was limited, in large measure, to the acreage which could be sustained by the low flows of late summer waterways. As the population increased, additional acreage was developed, and this over expansion brought on serious water shortages during dry years. The construction of Pineview Dam and Reservoir, the Ogden Canyon Conduit, the Ogden-Brigham Canal, and the south Ogden Highline Canal, 19341941, added 44,200 acrefeet of storage and permitted the irrigation of highly productive bench land in Weber and Box Elder Counties. During the Great Depression of the ‘30’s, farmers set up the Ogden River Water Users Association in an effort to bring water to crops in the Ogden valley area between the mountains to the east and the Great Salt Lake to the west. According to Bill Ferrell who helped build the wooden Pineview pipe, “Water was running wild down the canyon into the Great Salt Lake, so by taking care of these rivers we took care of a flood problem as well as increased the amount of water available for farmers.” Engineers decided that the reservoir would have to cover 51 free flowing wells dug between 1914 and 1933 in Artesian Park near Huntsville. Ogden City, at first, wouldn’t allow the wells to be plugged. The wells provided residents of Ogden with 15,000 acre-feet of cool fresh water a year–water that was free of nitrates, impurities, odors and sediment. Finally, with the city’s approval, engineers shut down the wells, capped them underground and built a new collection system. According to a September 1984 Standard Examiner Article, “The work included pipe tees attached to well casings with rigid two-inch air vents on top. Water from the wells passed through the tees and horizontal pipes to a large collection chamber downstream from the dam and entered the city mains. Under a contract with Ogden, the Bureau of Reclamation took over responsibility for the artesian system, giving the city the right to drain the reservoir if problems [arose] in the well field.” This field has since been abandoned. The wells became contaminated with iron oxide, which tinted the water red and gave it an unpleasant taste. Today, the city gets the majority of its culinary water from six wells located near the junction of the North Arm and the main body of the lake near the end of String Town Road. Farmers were granted a five million dollar loan from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Beginning in 1933 local men and Federal Works Project Administration workers coming from the east began clearing the Ogden Canyon area. Crews hacked most of the willow trees out of Ogden Canyon, making way for the new pipeline and dam that would catch the water flowing from the upper reaches of the Ogden River. Mr. Ferrell supervised 29 boys from Huntsville whose main tool was an ax. An article from the Standard Examiner read, “For a year the crews tore out trees and underbrush–the same cover cattle once nibbled on the state as a whole.” Governor Blood stated, “Back of us are the pine clad hills, and in front of us are the everlasting hills. Back here in the valley above, nature has provided that which has been most marvelous. Ogden was settled in a most beautiful location . . . Where Artesian Wells Park before (circa 1935) construction of Pineview Revervoir. throughout the summer and hid in during the winter. The men tossed wood into piles to be burned. Their boots and chopping eventually packed the canyon floor smooth as cement.” Mr. Ferrell related, “We had some of the finest black soil–those river bottoms was rich. You could plant anything. In later years we got to planting peas. That gave farmers a little cash.” In October of 1934 a CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) camp was built in Huntsville to house about 235 young men from Ephraim who worked on the construction of the dam. After completion, about 50 Huntsville and Eden farmers had to evacuate their property in preparation of the filling of the new reservoir, property that was claimed and homesteaded almost a century earlier. Property was condemned and buildings had to be moved or torn down. A cemetery was even moved. According to Haynes Fuller, grandson of John Thompson Ritter who had to move his dairy operation, “They just dug ‘em up [the graves] with a shovel and moved ‘em.” On Saturday, September 30, 1934 a groundbreaking ceremony in Ogden Canyon kicked off construction of the dam. Utah governor Henry H. Blood turned the first shovel of dirt. State officials, cooperative organizations, industrial leaders, and about 500 spectators gathered to witness the ceremony in a shady glen just below the dam site. William J. McEntyre, chairman of the board of Weber County Commissioners spoke. Ogden City Mayor Harman Peery also spoke, “Ogden city feels proud this morning to see the hundreds of people who are here to witness the commencement of this great project. The completion of this dam will be most beneficial to Weber and Box Elder counties and to there is vision of wise men the people are preserved. Through the vision of men you see today the beginning of a product that will mean added products on every acre, the building of new houses, and the making of old ones more habitable. Between 50,000 and 70,000 people will be directly or indirectly benefited by this project.” Senator King stated, “I wish to exten[d] greetings and felicitations on this auspicious event. Many years ago those who laid the foundations of this state came into a barren wilderness. They believed that there would be developed a great commonwealth. I have no doubt that those who came through this valley saw the possibility of some day impounding the water. We owe much to the pioneers who dug little ditches in the parched soil. Indeed, the beginning of irrigation was brought about by the pioneers of this state.” Mayor Louis Marcus of Salt Lake City announced that he was surprised at the size of the project. J. H. Andrews, president of the Ogden chamber of Commerce expressed his thoughts that nothing as important as this project had transpired in the area during the last 30 or 40 years as the construction of the dam. A September 30, 1934 article in the Standard Examiner stated, “The dam, it was agreed, will tap new springs of productivity for one of the richest farming sections in the world and for hundreds of farmers it will mean a new lease on life. Ample tribute was paid in the speeches Saturday to the many groups and organizations that have had a part in the long and tedious preliminary negotiations. But there were present also many horny-handed sons of toil, farmers who have wrested a living from the land since they were old enough to work. It is they who in the last analysis have made the Pine View dam a reality.” Following the celebration, a barbecue luncheon was held near the dam site. Returning to Ogden, citizens witnessed and participated in a parade commemorating the start of the project. Headed by the American Legion color guard, the parade moved through Ogden on Washington Boulevard to tunes played by the Box Elder High school band. Automobiles caring city and county dignitaries followed. The Polk schoolboys drum band also played. The dam would store waters from the north, middle and south forks of the Ogden River. Utah Construction Company of Ogden and Morrison Knudsen Company, Incorporated of Boise, Idaho contracted jointly to undertake the project at a projected cost of $677,898. Final cost for the dam’s construction rose to $4,735,284 due, primarily, to unique engineering problems that required solutions from engineers from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The rolled-earth and concrete dam stood 61 feet high at completion, with the capability of holding 44,170 acre feet of water–enough to cover 44,170 acres of land with one foot of water. After ripping out the old horse-and-buggy road that ran up the center of the canyon, and the trees and brush, a new road to the Valley was completed by 1934. By June 1937, the first irrigation water was delivered from the dam by what was officially known as the Ogden River Project. In August, operation of the project was formally turned over to the Ogden River Water Users Association. The dam was built over the edge of a bedrock shelf, not on top of the bedrock which is how dams are normally designed and built. Thus, design dictated that a 20 foot deep trench be dug across the canyon beneath the site. Contractors drove sheets of steel piling into the bottom of the trench, forming a cut-off wall below the river bottom. During and following World War II, military establishments and industries were greatly expanded in the Ogden area. The population increased beyond all expectations. Military, industrial and municipal expansion seriously overtaxed the developed water supply. Agricultural expansion stopped. Early in 1946, a group of civic leaders and representatives of the water users’ organizations requested the Bureau of Reclamation to make a comprehensive study of the water resources of the Weber Basin area. The study was completed early in 1949 and a report prepared outlining and recommending a comprehensive reclamation project. This report was approved by Congress and the law established the Weber Basin Reclamation Project, which was then signed by President Harry S. Truman on August 29, 1949. The approved reclamation project included plans for increased storage in an enlarged Pineview Reservoir to serve lands west of Ogden. The dam was Pineview cont. on page 21 |