Fort Peck Lake

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Fort Peck Lake
Fort Peck Dam
Aerial view of the reservoir with the dam
Aerial view of the reservoir with the dam
Location: Montana ( USA )
Tributaries: Missouri River , Big Dry Creek
Drain: Missouri River
Larger places nearby: Glasgow (Montana)
Fort Peck Lake, Montana
Fort Peck Lake
Coordinates 47 ° 59 ′ 0 ″  N , 106 ° 25 ′ 0 ″  W Coordinates: 47 ° 59 ′ 0 ″  N , 106 ° 25 ′ 0 ″  W
Data on the structure
Construction time: 1933-1940
Height of the barrier structure : 75-78 m
Building volume: 96.049 million m³
Crown length: 6409-6464 m
Crown width: 30 m
Base width: 1500 m
Power plant output: 185.25 MW
Data on the reservoir
Water surface 981 km²
Storage space 22,119–26,000 million m³
Catchment area 26th 112  km²
Design flood : 7th 000  m³ / s
Fort Peck Dam (Fort Peck Montana) Spillway 01.jpg
Pillar of the flood relief under construction

The Fort Peck Dam is a dam at Fort Peck Dam , the highest of six dams on the Missouri in Montana , USA. It is located near the small town of Fort Peck, an old trading post from the 1860s, 20 miles southeast of Glasgow, Montana and 10 miles southwest of Nashua.

Technical specifications

The connected hydropower plant generates 185.25 MW with five turbines  . The first electricity was generated in July 1943. In addition to generating electricity, the purpose of the dam is flood protection, making the lower reaches of the river navigable, fishing and nature conservation, recreation, water supply and water improvement.

The reservoir (Fort Peck Lake) is the largest in Montana and the fifth largest in the United States by storage space and the fourth largest by area. It is 216 km long, has a bank length of 2432 km and a maximum depth of 67 m. It is located on the Missouri above Lake Sakakawea . There are different specifications for the storage space: 22,119, 23,000, 23,546 or 26,000 million m³. At 22,119 million m³ this results in an average depth of 22.5 m with the water surface of 981 km².

The dam (Fort Peck Dam) was built as a flushing dam ; therefore it has very shallow slopes. After its construction volume of 96 million m³, it is roughly the ninth largest dam on earth today. Until at least the 1950s it was actually the largest earth dam. Its maximum height is specified between 75 and 78 m, its length is 6409 to 6464 m.

history

The project was started in 1933 under President Franklin D. Roosevelt as a job creation measure during the " Great Depression ". Up to 11,000 workers (1939) were employed on the construction site. The construction management was held by the US Army Corps of Engineers , which still operates the dam today.

The entire reservoir is located in the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge . The sanctuary is known for its fossil finds, for example the skull of a triceratops . There are also many opportunities for recreation here.

The first issue of Life magazine dated November 23, 1936 featured a photo of the Fort Peck Dam, photographed by Margaret Bourke-White .

During the construction work for the dam, on September 22nd, 1938, there was a landslide in which 3.8 million m³ of dam material slipped into the reservoir. 34 workers were buried and eight died. Due to this accident, the completion was delayed by a year.

Fort Peck Dam was added to the List of Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks by the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1990.

See also

literature

  • TA Middlebrooks: Fort Peck Slide: Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers. 107, 723-764, (1942).
  • Report on the Slide of a Portion of the Upstream Face of the Fort Peck Dam. Corps of Engineers, US Army (1939).

Web links

Commons : Fort Peck Lake  - Collection of Pictures, Videos, and Audio Files
Commons : Fort Peck Dam  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ TA Middlebrooks: Fort Peck Slide: Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers. 107, 723-764, (1942).
  2. ^ Report on the Slide of a Portion of the Upstream Face of the Fort Peck Dam. Corps of Engineers, US Army (1939).