Carlsbad Irrigation District, Avalon Dam, On Pecos River, 4 miles North of Carlsbad, Carlsbad, Eddy County, NM

Significance: Avalon Dam serves as a diversion structure feeding the Carlsbad Irrigation District's canal network; the reservoir supplements the storage capacity of McMillan Dam, the system's main storage reservoir. The U.S. Reclamation Service constructed the dam at this location; privately financed dams constructed in 1890 and 1893 were breached by floodwaters in 1893 and 1904. Avalon Dam is a long, low, rockfill dam with a facing of impervious earth. The dam has a combination concrete and steel sheet piling core wall. Water is fed from the reservoir into the irrigation district's main canal through a six-bay concrete headgate structure. Three spillways protect the dam from overtopping. Two of these structures are overfall weirs; the third features a pair of innovative 1911 cylinder gates. The Civilian Conservation Corps added the last improvements to the site in the 1930's, including a suspension bridge, warehouse, and extensive landscaping features.

Survey number: HAER NM-4-B

National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 66000476

irrigation dams carlsbad nm carlsbad carlsbad irrigation district avalon dam avalon dam pecos pecos river miles eddy eddy county new mexico historic american engineering record lon johnson fred quivik lysa wegman french photo ultra high resolution high resolution building plans architectural diagrams engineering diagrams design library of congress national register of historic places

1969 - 1980

Library of Congress

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