Horseshoe Dam, Arizona: National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form

Author(s): Jim Bailey

Year: 2017

Summary

Horseshoe Dam, the second dam on the Verde River, was constructed from 1944 to 1946 by the Phelps-Dodge Copper Products Company, as part of an agreement with the Salt River Valley Valley Water Users' Association (Association) to increase Phoenix's water supply in exchange for water delivered to Phelps-Dodge's copper mines in Morenci. Horseshoe Dam consists of the dam, including the concrete spillway, earthfill and rockfill abutments, the outlet tunnel, and the outlet tunnel's intake tower. The stability berm is a non-contributing structure to the dam complex. Horseshoe Dam is the first earthfill and rockfilll structure on the Salt River Project and exemplifies the shifting nature of its irrigation and municipal water supply programs.

Horseshoe Dam exhibits statewide significance under Criterion A in the areas of Politics/Government and Community Planning and Development. Under Criterion A, is it associated with the evolution of the Salt River Project, one of the first five federally-sponsored western water projects authorized under the National Reclamation Act of 1902. Under Politics/Government and Community Planning and Development, Horseshoe Dam is significant as the only Salt River Project dam associated with strategic materials production during World War II.

Cite this Record

Horseshoe Dam, Arizona: National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form. Jim Bailey. 2017 ( tDAR id: 453370) ; doi:10.48512/XCV8453370

Temporal Coverage

Calendar Date: 1944 to 1951 (Period of Significance)

Spatial Coverage

min long: -111.79; min lat: 33.956 ; max long: -111.661; max lat: 34.06 ;

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): USDI Bureau of Reclamation, Phoenix Area Office

Collaborator(s): Salt River Project

Sponsor(s): USDI Bureau of Reclamation, Phoenix Area Office

Submitted To(s): USDI, National Park Service

File Information

  Name Size Creation Date Date Uploaded Access
FINAL-2017-Horseshoe-Dam-NRHP-Nomination-Signed.pdf 9.51mb Jul 23, 2019 Jul 23, 2019 9:43:05 AM Public
Horseshoe Dam National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form, signed August 7, 2017.