Visited on 9/21/2018,
Jeff and I loaded up our dogs, Summer and Skye for a day adventure to the back
country of Yosemite National Park. We
visited three lakes, two actually located within the National Park boundary and
one in the adjacent Stanislaus National Forest of Northern California. Lake Eleanor is located just inside the
Yosemite National Park boundary and was our third stop. We were able to drive across the Cherry Lake Dam and proceed about 2 miles on a rough gravel road to the trailhead for Lake Eleanor, then we had to hike about a 1/2 mile to get a view of the lake. Lake Eleanor is a reservoir located in the
northwestern backcountry of Yosemite National Park at an altitude of 4,657 feet
with a surface area of 953 acres.
The lake was formed in
1918 by damming Eleanor Creek as part of the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir system,
constructed to supply water and power to the city of San Francisco. The
original smaller, natural lake was also named "Eleanor" after the
daughter of Josiah Whitney, leader of the California Geological Survey in the
1860s.
Lake Eleanor Dam
stands as a concrete multiple arch dam with a height of 68 feet and a length of
1,260 feet. This first stage of the Hetch Hetchy project was built for
year-round hydroelectric power generation, which was then sold to help finance
construction of the larger O'Shaughnessy Dam, completed in 1923.
That dams were planned
for a valley in Yosemite National Park caused significant opposition. One of
the most potent opponents was the Sierra Club and its founding President, John
Muir. After two vetoes by Teddy Roosevelt, on December 19, 1913, Woodrow Wilson
signed the Raker Act permitting construction. It began in 1914.
The remote location
dictated the use of an unusual multiple-arch structure here. It dramatically
minimized the amount of concrete used in comparison with a gravity dam. Even
more unusual, the concrete arches were elliptical rather than circular, the only
multiple-arch dam ever built this way. Chief designer for the San Francisco Board of
Public Works Michael O'Shaughnessy, along with hydraulic structural engineer
R.P. McIntosh, were primarily responsible for the design.
Still owned and
operated by the city, the lake now provides opportunities for angling, hiking,
and camping.
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