Blog Date: 4/4/2022
Date Photographed: 2/13/2022
All content is © 2022, Larry Nader & Larry Nader Photography & Art
Located about 35-miles north of downtown Phoenix and residing in both Maricopa and Yavapai Counties along the Agua Fria River, is the man-made reservoir called Lake Pleasant. While the lake itself is a product of recent history, the history of the area it occupies is a familiar one to anyone who has read any prehistoric accounts of Arizona.
As with much of the Arizona portion of the Sonoran Desert, its past reveals that it was first occupied by the Hohokam people from around 700CE to 1450CE as determined by historians who studied five archeological sites in the area. Archeological sites were found on every flat terrace that was close to the river. Then, as it is today, water was key to survival.
As for modern history, Lake Pleasant’s roots go back to the late-1800s, when it saw a large number of miners and ranchers relocate into the area along the Agua Fria River with the country's expansion westward. The first attempt to dam the river came during this period when a settler named William B. Pratt built a dam across the river in 1890 to hold water for the miners. His efforts were short-lived though as a year later a flood in the area washed it away.
It was in 1925 that a group of local farmers, headed by William Beardsley, managed to raise $3.3 Million to build a real dam. The funds were generated through selling bonds to a group of investors from New York. Carl Pleasant was selected by the farmers to design a dam to control the Agua Fria waters.
The project was named Carl Pleasant Dam started construction in 1926 and completed the dam in 1928. While the dam was not government-funded it was a record-breaker for the era. When completed, the dam stood approximately 76-feet tall, 250-feet in length, and had a holding capacity of 157,000 acre-feet of water. This was the birth of Lake Pleasant.
In 1935 the dam was into a retrofit as crews added steel ties to the dam’s buttresses, adding additional strength. The dam was renamed the Waddell Dam in 1964. A few years later in 1968, the Central Arizona Project (CAP) was born with the signing of the Colorado River Basin Project Act by President Lyndon Johnson.
For the first 45-years of its existence, the lake was used strictly to hold river water to use in irrigation crops and farmland. But, with the Central Arizona Project now it would also be used to hold water from the Colorado River by way of Lake Havasu. The water would then be transported to Phoenix as needed via a 30-mile concrete-lined canal system called the Beardsley Canal.
By 1973 it was clear that Lake Pleasant's storage capacity would need to increase to meet current and future demands put on it by a growing desert community. Central Arizona Project began construction on the larger New Waddell Dam, located about one-half mile downstream of the original dam. Construction of this new dam began in 1987 and was completed in 1992, tripling the size of Lake Pleasant.
As the Phoenix area expanded in population, Lake Pleasant also became a major center for recreational activities such as boating, fishing, and camping. The Pleasant Harbor Marina, a privately owned business opened in September 1993 and features 640 wet slips and 740 dry slips for boat storage. A second marina, Scorpion Bay, opened in December 2008.
Today, the lake features 2 paved boat launch ramps (a ten-lane and a four-lane), 450 picnic sites, 225 campsites, 14 group use areas, four overlooks, 10,000-acres of water surface, 116-miles of shoreline, and seven miles of trails. Its water’s average depth of 70-feet with the deepest area of 260-feet at the New Waddell Dam.
Lake Pleasant is a very popular getaway location for people in the Phoenix metropolitan area as well as visitors from all over the world. No matter what your water activity of choice is, Lake Pleasant has it for you. Boating, fishing, sailing, water-skiing, camping, or just hanging out for the day and enjoying a nice picnic in nature, this is a great location to spend your day or a few days.
Until Next week...thank you for reading my blog, stay safe, and happy travels!
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