{"nrhp_refnum":"81000713","name":"Lake Tahoe Dam","other_names":[],"category":"structure","location":{"address":"SR 89 at Truckee River","address_restricted":false,"city":"Tahoe City","county":"Placer County","state":"CA","lat":39.16702473400005,"lon":-120.14491500899999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1981-03-25","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Agriculture","Conservation","Engineering"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Lake Tahoe Dam is a concrete slab-and-buttress sluiceway regulator at the outlet of Lake Tahoe into the Truckee River at Tahoe City, Placer County, California. It was built between 1909 and 1913 as part of the Newlands Reclamation Project.","why_significant":"The nomination presents the dam under the theme of Conservation, as a component of the Newlands Reclamation Project, one of the first projects begun under national legislation to reclaim arid western lands. The dam regulates the lake's surface elevation and controls releases for irrigation and power generation.","narrative":"Lake Tahoe Dam is a concrete control structure at the point where Lake Tahoe flows into the Truckee River at Tahoe City, California. Built between 1909 and 1913, it is a slab-and-buttress sluiceway regulator 14 feet high and 109 feet long, with seventeen 5-by-4-foot outlet gates and a capacity of 3,000 cubic feet per second. It regulates the elevation of the lake surface and controls releases of water for irrigation and power generation. The dam is one component of the Newlands Reclamation Project, begun in 1903 and among the first efforts launched under national legislation to reclaim arid western lands for agriculture. Water stored in Lake Tahoe and Boca Reservoir is diverted from the Truckee River into the Truckee Canal and on to the Carson River system, serving almost 1,000 farms on 73,000 acres near Fallon, Nevada. The nomination treats the dam under the theme of conservation. Its proposed boundary is a 55-foot radius from the dam's center, about 0.10 acre.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Concrete slab-and-buttress sluiceway regulator","criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition is marked good and altered; the dam is described as still regulating lake levels and releases.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:31.652577-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/81000713.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/81000713/6b29d74ed7-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/81000713/6b29d74ed7-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Little Mountain 5","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lake_Tahoe_Dam_1.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Little Mountain 5</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lake_Tahoe_Dam_1.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123857724","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Tahoe_Dam","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6477944"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/placer-county/lake-tahoe-dam-81000713/"}