Lahontan Dam and reservoir are part of the Newlands Project, one of the first irrigation projects selected for construction following passage of the 1902 Reclamation Act. In 1905 it became the first to deliver water from works constructed by the U.S. The project diverts and stores water from the Truckee and Carson River Basins to irrigate lands near Fallon and to produce hydroelectric power. Drain
age water from irrigated lands flows into the Stillwater Wildlife Management Area—one of the finest waterfowl areas in Nevada. The dam, completed in 1915, is 162- feet high, 1,700-feet long at the top and contains 733 cubic yards of earth fill. The reservoir has a storage capacity of 312,000 acre-feet when full. The reservoir was named after the ancient Lake Lahontan, which covered more than 8,500 square miles of the western Great Basin during the last Ice Age. Its ancient shore terraces may be seen high on the mountainsides of the surrounding region. Lahontan became a Nevada State Recreation Area in 1971. It was previously operated by Churchill and Lyon Counties.
