Last stand
Swift water rocky site
Below the dam
A remnant of an earlier settlement incarnation, this old power house persists. Just upstream from the dam, what is left of the old town site of American Falls is under the reservoir water most of the time. Starting in 1925, the Bureau of Reclamation moved the entire municipality to make way for a large dam. The project involved relocating approximately 350 residents and their houses, many businesses, schools, churches, roads, and associated infrastructure to higher ground.
“A dam is monumentally static; it tries to bring a river under control, to regulate its seasonal pattern of floods and low flow.” – Patrick McCully