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Cheesman Dam

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1905, Charles L. Harrison. 13 miles southwest of Deckers via S. Deckers Rd. and U.S. Forest Service Rd. 211

This National Engineering Landmark is a most effective and beautiful stone dam incorporating existing rock features and a natural rock spillway. Charles Harrison, who previously worked on the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Panama Canal, used granite blocks averaging four to six tons each and quarried at the site. The dam is 176 feet thick at the base, 18 feet wide at the top, and 221 feet high. The first major on-stream municipal water storage in the Rockies, this is also the first major U.S. dam to use the gravity-arch concept, which makes it possible to construct safer and stronger dams. Walter Scott Cheesman (1838–1907) presided over the Denver Union Water Company before it became the city-owned Denver Water Department in 1918. The pristine waters of the 875-surface-acre lake, set in Pike National Forest, are part of Denver's water supply.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Thomas J. Noel
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Data

Citation

Thomas J. Noel, "Cheesman Dam", [Sedalia, Colorado], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/CO-01-DA20.

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