Archives West Finding Aid

The United States Bureau of Reclamation was established in 1902. The Bureau played an important role in the construction of dams, power plants, and canals throughout the western United States. Many of its projects centered on the development of Utah's natural resources to provide domestic water, irrigation, and power. Beginning in the 1920s, the USBR conducted a series of investigations about the water situation of the Salt Lake Basin, which had experienced several recent droughts. Of significant concern was the dwindling water level in Utah Lake, which supplied the majority of irrigation of water for areas of the Salt Lake Valley.

In 1938, the USBR initiated the Provo River Project under the provisions of the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933. Engineers designed the project to provide irrigation water to Salt Lake City, Utah, and Wasatch Front counties as well as domestic water to American Fork, Lehi, Lindon, Orem, Pleasant Grove, Provo, and Salt Lake City. During World War II, the scarcities of manpower, materials, and funds slowed the construction of reclamation projects, but in 1947 large-scale construction resumed. Crews finally completed the Provo River Project in 1958. Its main features are: the Deer Creek Dam, Reservoir, and Powerplant, Salt Lake Aqueduct and Terminal Reservoir, Murdock Diversion Dam, Murdock Canal (formerly named Provo Reservoir Canal), Weber-Provo Diversion Canal, Duchesne Tunnel, Jordan Narrows Siphon and Pumping Plant, and the South Lateral.