BY KAREN CROWSON
Located on the north-central margin of the Cenozoic Snake River Plain, in the southern foothills of the Pioneer Mountains, is Fish Creek Reservoir. This reservoir is small and functions as an irrigation and industrial water dam and is suitable for motorized and non-motorized watercraft and has a boat ramp. Located in Blaine County, Idaho, Fish Creek Reservoir is 10 miles from Carey and 21.7 miles from Bellevue at an elevation of 5, 292 feet.
From Carey, follow Highway 93 toward Arco until the signed turnoff onto a gravel road. Follow the gravel road until you reach the reservoir.
The reservoir is 349.5 acres and only holds water in the spring. There are picnic areas that dot the sides of the reservoir with a semi-developed campsite with vault toilet. This area is popular for hunters, with hunting allowed in designated areas. There is a 14-day camping limit but no fees.
Inhabiting the reservoir are freshwater shrimp, which are the cause of the large fish in the reservoir. The Idaho Department of Fish and Game keeps the reservoir stocked for trout fishing and on May 31, 2019, 648 rainbow trout greater than six inches were stocked in the reservoir.
Nestled in the lower Fish Creek drainage, the dam stands at 92 feet high by 1,700 feet wide and is constructed of reinforced concrete as a multiple-arch and buttress dam. Charles Hernshem is credited for the discovery of the FCR site and, in 1919, construction of the dam began.
The architect of the dam was John S. Eastwood. Eastwood was an engineer who had built the first reinforced concrete multiple-arch dam in the world on a bedrock foundation in 1908 at Hume Lake, Calif. Two of the 17 dams created in his career are here in Idaho; one in Malad and the other FCR. It is estimated that Eastwood’s fee for the two dams was around 5 percent of the total construction cost.
During construction of the Fish Creek dam, Earl Joseph Davis was born on Nov. 17, 1921, six miles outside of Carey,on a ranch. Davis described in his memoir, titled “A Brief Life History of Earl Joseph Davis,” of his family losing their ranch due to the delay in construction of the reservoir, writing, “Water wasn’t available and we were unable to pay the $10,000 mortgage owed on the ranch.”
The dam was completed in 1923 and in the spring of 1929 Davis’s family moved three miles north of FCR. Davis writes that his family purchased the Sparks Ranch and he and his siblings attended the Fish Creek School.
Davis recalls in his memoir, “I loved the ranch. We raised wild hay, alfalfa, grain and had pastureland. Fish Creek ran through the ranch. We loved to fish there and also swim. It was really a wonderful place to grow up.”
Davis’s fondness for the area is described once more: “As I remember the Fish Creek ranch, it was such a beautiful place. Meadows and several springs that came forth out of the earth. Lots of willows and trees along the springs and along the banks of Fish Creek. Fish Creek meandered through the ranch. It wasn’t a large stream. There was wonderful fishing and we also had one hole where we used to swim.”
Davis describes visiting the dam in the summer and recalls an incident at the dam with Donald, Bob, and Richard Brooks. Davis reports that he and his friends would find abandoned boats at the dam, usually waterlogged and rotting, but on one occasion he and his friends attempted to repair one of the abandoned boats before taking it out on the reservoir, writing, “Fortunately, it wasn’t a wide place near the backwaters. We had a can for bailing and boards for oars. We were about halfway across when the caulking started to come out. We couldn’t bail fast enough and the boat was sinking. We started swimming then. Fortunately, there was an old dead tree sticking up and I swam for it. Richard was a good swimmer and he helped me to reach the shore.”
“Another time at the dam,” Davis writes, “in a little better boat, we went along the concrete dam. I think that time there was Fritz and Jimmy Hurst, Frank Elliot, Norman Hutton and me. We were doing fine, going along the dam, when suddenly we were above the spillway. A lot of water was going out and the dam was partly full. We were drawn tight against the concrete. We bailed, pushed and shoved and finally got past. Had anyone gone in there, it would have been curtains! I guess if we look back we can find lots of times our guardian angels have looked out for us.”
On Dec. 29, 1978, the dam achieved historic status when it was added to the National Register of Historic Places, but is now considered one of the most fragile dams in south-central Idaho. In 2002, the Department of Water Resources required the reservoir company to install on State Highway 20 a dam failure warning system. The consequences of time had an effect on the structure of the dam, with constant exposure to the harsh elements, including freeze-and-thaw events leading to the slow deterioration of the dam.
In 2004, the state forced the restriction of the waters held in the reservoir by half. When irrigators explored the cost of rebuilding the dam, the estimate ranged from $11 to $20 million. Rights to hold full capacity cannot be reinstated until the DWR deems the dam safe.
The following year, the Fish Creek Reservoir Company was ordered by the DWR to cut a larger spillway into the side of the dam in order to keep the maximum water level from rising too high. The FCRC was also required to dig a channel beneath the spillway to direct the flow of water when levels crest the maximum.
After the completion of the spillway work, downstream farmers noticed a significant decline in the amount of irrigation water they could use. In 2007, the Association of Dam Safety released a list of 14 dams in Idaho considered to be structurally deficient and the FCR was identified as one of the four highest-hazard dams in Idaho, posing significant threat to human lives if it were to fail.
By 2009, the dam was only holding back 5,500 acre-feet, with levels rising no higher than 69.2 feet compared to the 12,743 acre-feet it once held. That same year, Corey Skinner, an engineer with the DWR in the Twin Falls District, said, “Before the new spillway was cut, waters used to rise to a height of 88 feet behind the dam.”
As time continues to take its toll on the near-century-old dam, and costs to rebuild and repair it rise, it seems inevitable of its pending failure, but maybe Davis’s guardian angels are still there, keeping mankind safe from the deteriorating dam.