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- Little Wood River Project
Little Wood River Project
State: Idaho
Region: Pacific Northwest
Related Documents
Little Wood River Project History (38 KB)
Related Facilities
Related Links
Major Storage Reservoirs in the Upper Snake River Basin
Precipitation
Little Wood River near Carey, Idaho (USGS)
Spring and Summer (NRCS)
Mountain Snowpack Maps for Columbia River Basin
Columbia River Snowpack Summary
Explanation of Palmer Drought Severity Index (Text)
Little Wood
Weather Conditions (NOAA)
Palmer Drought Index Map
General
Little Wood River Project includes lands within an area 2 miles wide and 12 miles long upstream and downstream from Carey, Idaho, in the south-central section of the State. The project provides a supplemental irrigation water supply for approximately 9,550 acres of land. The principal construction feature is the enlarged Little Wood River Dam and Reservoir that serve previously constructed diversion and distribution works. Flood control is provided by operation of the reservoir on a forecast basis.
History
Settlement of the project area took place in the late 1800`s, principally by people interested in raising livestock. Surrounding foothills and mountains to the north furnished summer grazing. Earliest water rights have a priority date of 1880 and were granted to meet the individual needs of the early farmers. In 1893, the settlers formed a mutual association and constructed canals on both sides of the river to meet water requirements for new irrigable lands. Carey Lake Reservoir Company was formed in 1912 and obtained a license to divert and store water in Carey Lake for 2,051 acres east of Carey, Idaho. By 1923 or 1924, no water was available for storage, and, since that time, there has been no irrigation storage in Carey Lake. The lake was purchased by the Idaho Fish and Game Department in 1949.
Construction
Irrigation began in Idaho in the 1840s, when Reverend Henry H. Spalding, a missionary at Lapwai, dug a ditch from the Clearwater River to supply his dying garden with water. The Mormon settlers brought more irrigation experience with them to Idaho, and the U.S. Geological Survey first conducted investigations of irrigation possibilities of the state in 1889-90. The Idaho State Engineer ordered further surveys five years later. Private organizations toyed with irrigation possibilities for several years after 1887, but made no definitive investigations.(5) Reclamation conducted the earliest irrigation survey of the Little Wood River area in 1904. Reclamation officials concluded from the surveys, that the cost of storing water would be excessive. Several proposals and sites received consideration later, but financial problems prevented construction until 1936. Construction of the Little Wood River Dam started under the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1936. Confronted by winter weather, lack of funds, and floods, the WPA stopped construction in 1939. Construction of the dam finished in 1941, under contract, for an estimated $300,000. After construction, Little Wood River Dam eventually came under ownership of the Little Wood River Irrigation District (LWRID) which formed in 1935.(6) The original Little Wood River Dam, known locally as Carey Dam, stood seventy-seven feet high upon completion, lower than originally planned. The dam had a rolled clay upstream core and a downstream dumped rockfill section. Little Wood River Dam was 1,026 feet long, and supplied water to the irrigation district through a rock walled canal. Little Wood River Reservoir initially had a capacity of 12,100 acre-feet.(7) In 1947, the Board of Directors of the Little Wood River Irrigation District started investigating the feasibility of raising Little Wood River Dam thirty-five feet. A private engineering firm made a report and prepared plans and estimates, but the fact that the LWRID could not arrange financing, put an end to the idea. Reclamation began investigating dam enlargement in the summer of 1954, and repeated its findings in June 1955. Congress then authorized the Little Wood River Project on August 6, 1956. Estimates for the Project cost reached $2,012,000. The authorization set aside $30,700 for recreational facilities, and $1,983,300 for increasing the capacity of the reservoir.(8) In preparation for enlarging the Little Wood River Dam, Reclamation transferred Orville L. Kime, Construction Engineer of the North Side Pumping Division of the Minidoka Project, to the Little Wood River Project to serve as Construction Engineer. On August 22, 1958, Reclamation awarded the contract for the dam`s enlargement to Lewis Hopkins Company and Arthur R. Sime for $1,093,945. The contractor began work before the actual award of the contract, instead of waiting for an Idaho District Judge to approve the repayment contract between the LWRID and the Department of the Interior, as per Idaho law.(9) Lewis Hopkins first tackled clearing and stripping of the borrow areas. The wild bushes, cottonwood trees, pines, quaking aspens, and other growth proved heavy and difficult to remove. The contractor pushed the brush to the side and left it for a year to dry out before burning. Lewis Hopkins then started stripping and excavating the spillway. The contractor completed both clearing of the borrow areas and excavating the spillway by the end of 1958.(10) On September 9, 1958, Lewis Hopkins placed embankment material in a bog hole at the upstream end of the dam to support construction equipment there. Because of the construction equipment`s weight, the contractor placed the material in thick layer. Lewis Hopkins then started stripping the existing dam embankment during September. The contractor started placing the new embankment in October 1958. Freezing weather stopped the work on November 5, 1958.(11) Reclamation decided to abandon the proposed spillway in favor of a natural drainage channel north of the original spillway site. Incorporating the natural channel, the contractor carried out excavation of the spillway on a twenty-four hour basis to remove rock, and facilitate foundation grouting and concrete placement in the fall. The spillway grouting became more extensive than anticipated, but Lewis Hopkins Co. still accomplished more work before the end of 1958, than Reclamation officials originally estimated.(12) Work crews kept the placement temperature of the concrete between fifty and sixty degrees fahrenheit. The contractor covered the concrete with a framework `shack` and tarpaulins.(13) Three bottled gas heater, two automatic oil burners with blowers to circulate the heat, two salamanders, and one oil stove heated the small structure and the concrete. Small lanterns protected areas that required additional heating.(14) Lewis Hopkins completed excavation and concrete placement in the chute section of the outlet works, including the conduit extension, in February 1959. The contractor sluiced embankment material in around the conduit extension. Water level increases in the reservoir caused seepage water to enter the outlet shaft, breaking up the clay and rocks into small pieces. Reclamation officials estimated the seepage flow had a rate of ten to fifteen miners inches or 500-750 cubic feet per second by Idaho measurements. The contractor placed the new trashracks in the old structure in October 1959. While a steel strike during the year delayed delivery of the new high pressure gates, they finally arrived on November 3, 1959. Lewis Hopkins installed the gate frames and completed the concrete to the level of the gate chamber floor in December 1959.(15) Lewis Hopkins started placing embankment material on April 14, 1959. Increasing the height of the dam necessitated extending embankment fill to the right abutment at the new level. Equipment failures in June caused a work slowdown on embankment placement for one and one-half days. The contractor finished stripping the old dam`s spillway structure and right abutment, and started placing the new dam embankment on that section.(16) September rain interfered with Lewis Hopkins` September 20, 1959, target date for completion of the embankment, and snow on September 28 added to the delay. The weather shut down operations for fourteen shifts. Because the right abutment consisted of fractured rhyolite, the contractor consolidated the material with tire rollers. Tamping hammers would have crushed and loosened much of the rock, making it unusable. The contractor finished all earthwork zones on the dam in October 1959. Lewis Hopkins completed clean up work by burning uprooted trees, brush, and other debris cleared from one of the borrow areas. Additional work on the contractor`s haul road made it into a permanent access road to the dam.(17) Coinciding with embankment placement, preparation for work on the spillway structure started in April 1959. The work included removing loose rock, and cleaning out clay seams and cinder pockets. After the end of the preparation work, concrete placement started, and the contractor laid 324 cubic yards in the structure by the end of April. The finished concrete included the spillway training wall, crest, and apron. The contractor completed the spillway structure in June 1959.(18) Reclamation awarded the contract for clearing the enlarge area of Little Wood River Reservoir to Valley Tree Service of Payette, Idaho, issuing notice to proceed on January 9, 1959. The contractor started work in February, but bad weather forced Valley Tree to stop work and wait for more favorable conditions. The company resumed work on April 1. Valley Tree Service completed reservoir clearing in May 1959, placing the cleared vegetation aside to dry for later burning. The contractor started burning the material in October 1959, but wet weather slowed progress. Reclamation accepted the reservoir clearing November 10, 1959, with nearly half of the contract time remaining.(19) Work completed on the dam during 1959, included public use facilities, a boat ramp, and a water supply well. With Little Wood River Dam so close to completion, Reclamation dedicated the structure on December 19, 1959. The ceremony included a luncheon and entertainment at Carey High School.(20) Reclamation cut back its construction force on the Little Wood River Project in October 1959, as work neared completion. At the beginning of 1960, only seven Reclamation employees remained on the Project, including Project Construction Engineer Orville Kime. During the year Reclamation assigned all personnel to other projects. Kime went to the Vale Project in September 1960. The Minidoka Project office in Burley, Idaho, handled administration of the Little Wood River Project.(21) Pegram Construction Company subcontracted installation of the high pressure outlet gates from Lewis Hopkins. Pegram installed the gates in January 1960, but adverse weather conditions closed down work before the contractor could make them operational. Pegram started work on March 29, 1960, intent on completing enough work to make the outlet gates operational before the opening of the irrigation season, with plans to come back in June to finish the job. The contractor resumed work in June, and finished the outlet works July 20, 1960. Titus, Inc., started placing a gravel surface on the access roads to the dam on July 20, 1960, and finished ten days later.(22) Enlargement of Little Wood River Dam increased its height by about fifty-two feet. The dam is a zoned earthfill structure 129 feet high and 3,100 feet long at the crest. Little Wood River Dam has a top width of twenty-five feet and a maximum base width of 635 feet with a total volume of 959,000 cubic yards. The spillway structure is an uncontrolled crest on the left abutment, and the spillway is a natural channel which drops over a basalt cliff below the dam. The outlet works consist of a tunnel and concrete conduit through the right abutment with two six by four foot gates. The LWRID has one diversion dam, fifty miles of canal, and ten miles of laterals in the project area.(23) The contract for the enlargement of Little Wood River Dam was awarded August 22, 1958, and work was completed in July 1960. Principal crops are grain, hay, pasture, and potatoes. Impoundment of the Little Wood River has increased opportunities for boating and lake fishing. Located far from large population centers, the reservoir has proved to be popular for camping and fishing. The Bureau of Reclamation operates a small campground, picnic area, and boat ramp near the dam. Trout and kokanee salmon are the anglers` primary catch. For specific information on recreational opportunities at Little Wood Reservoir click on the name below. Historically, the area had never been free from the threat of flood damage from periodic floodings. Flood control benefits are being achieved by operating the reservoir on a forecast basis. Flooding, except for an extremely high flood discharge, has been eliminated in the community of Carey and immediate surrounding area. The Little Wood River Reservoir has 30,000 acre feet of capacity assigned to flood control. The Little Wood River Project has provided an accumulated $3,152,000 in flood control benefits from 1950 to 1998. The Little Wood River Project in Idaho, is administrated by the larger Minidoka Project which stretches from Jackson Lake Reservoir in Wyoming, across southern Idaho to the vicinity of Twin Falls. The Little Wood River Project involved enlarging the existing, privately owned Little Wood River Dam. The Works Progress Administration started construction of the dam in 1936, and a private contractor completed it in 1941. The Little Wood River Project lies entirely in Blaine County, Idaho, amidst the lava flows of southern Idaho and west of Craters of the Moon National Monument. The Project consists of Little Wood River Dam and Reservoir. The nearest city to the Project is Carey, Idaho, seven miles south and three miles east of the dam. The dam and reservoir serve an area approximately twelve miles long and two miles wide.(1) Two Native American groups inhabited southeastern Idaho prior to immigration by Europeans, in the nineteenth century. The Bannocks, a Northern Paiute speaking people, migrated from Oregon to the area of the Snake River plains. They differed from other Northern Paiutes by their acquisition of horses and organized buffalo hunts. The Bannocks co-existed peacefully in Idaho with area Northern Shoshones. Native grasses supported buffalo, hunted by both Indian groups, in the upper Snake River plains until about 1840. More recently, cattle grazing allowed sagebrush to replace these grasses. Fish also contributed largely to both groups` subsistence.(2) In the 1850s, Mormon settlers established the Fort Lemhi mission in Idaho. By the end of the decade, escalating conflicts with the Bannocks turned violent. In 1857-58, these clashes coincided with a U.S. military expedition to Utah, convincing Brigham Young, Utah`s territorial Governor and President of the L.D.S. Church, to recall the settlers to Utah. Mormon settlers returned to southern Idaho in the 1860s. The lure of gold soon brought miners to the Sawtooth Mountains in force.(3) The Bannocks and the various groups of the Shoshones found themselves placed on reservations starting in the late 1860s. The Federal government originally set up the Fort Hall Reservation in 1867, for the Boise and Bruneau Shoshone, and introduced the Bannock and other Shoshones to the reservation after the Fort Bridger Treaty of 1868. The government established the Lemhi Reservation in 1875, for the Lemhi and the Sheepeater Shoshone, but shut it down in 1907, and then also moved its residents to Fort Hall. The swelling of the white population increased friction between the newcomers and the native inhabitants, and the reservation system did not prevent conflicts. One such conflict, the Bannock War of 1878, started in Idaho, but moved west and ended with the Northern Paiute in Oregon. Disputes between white miners and Sheepeater Shoshones erupted in the Sheepeater War of 1878-79. Both conflicts ended the same as other confrontations between Native Americans and whites, in favor of the latter.(4) The Little Wood River Project
Plan
An increased water supply to meet the need of water users in the project area was provided by increasing the height of Little Wood River Dam by approximately 35 feet in 1960. This increased the reservoir capacity from 12,100 to 30,000 acre-feet (active 30,000 acre-feet). The diversion and carriage facilities on the project remained unchanged. Rehabilitation work included raising the dam crest 39 feet, extending the outlet tunnel downstream 150 feet, and relocating the spillway from right to left abutment. The completed structure has a structural height of 129 feet high, with a zoned earthfill embankment containing about 959,000 cubic yards of material. Outlet works reconstruction included enlargement of the entrance channel to the existing intake structure, construction of a gate chamber with a connecting 6-foot-diameter access shaft and shaft house in the existing tunnel approximately 250 feet downstream from the intake structure, extension of the existing tunnel with a 150-foot-long, 6- by 8-foot conduit and a 60-foot-long, 6- by 10-foot chute, and excavation of a stilling basin in the outlet channel. The spillway consists of an inlet channel, a concrete spillway structure with uncontrolled crest, an outlet channel, and a training wall on the right side of the outlet channel beginning approximately 1,000 feet downstream from the spillway crest. A one unit, 3,000 kilowatt powerplant was placed in operation in 1985 at the Little Wood River Dam by the Little Wood River Irrigation District pursuant to its license from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The project is owned, maintained and operated by the Little Wood River Irrigation District.
Contact
Contact
Title: Area Office ManagerOrganization: Upper Snake Field Office
Address: 470 22nd Street
City: Heyburn, ID 83336
Fax: 208-678-4321
Phone: 208-678-0461
Contact
Title: Public Affairs OfficerOrganization: Pacific Northwest Regional Office
Address: 1150 N Curtis Road, Suite 100
City: Boise, ID 83706-1234
Fax: 208-378-5019
Phone: 208-378-5020
Contact
Title: Public Affairs OfficerOrganization: Commissioner`s Office
Address: 1849 C Street NW
City: Washington, DC 20240
Fax: 202-513-0575
Phone: 202-513-0305
