Hungry Horse Dam

HUNGRY HORSE DAM

Bureau of Reclamation

Hungry Horse Dam, now being constructed by the Bureau of Reclamation, Department of the Interior, is situated on the South Fork of the Flathead River, twelve miles south of the west entrance to Glacier National Park. The Project lies wholly within the Flathead National Forest, an area of 2,600,000 acres of virgin timberland.

The construction of Hungry Horse Dam and Powerplant was authorized by an Act of Congress dated June 5, 1944. A prime contract for the construction of the dam and powerplant in the amount of $43,431,000 was awarded on April 21, 1948, to the General-Shea-Morrison Company, a combination of twelve contracting firms. Under the terms of the contract 2,000 calender days, or approximately five and one-half years, have been allowed for completion of the work.

The dam will be a key project in the Department of the Interior's long range program for multiple-purpose development of the water resources of the vast Columbia River drainage basin. Generation of hydro-electric power at the Hungry Horse powerplant will play a major role in alleviating the current power shortage in the Pacific northwest. In addition, the Project will provide benefits in controlling floods, regulation of stream flow, improvement of navigation and irrigation of arid lands.

The dam will be a concrete arch-structure 520 feet high with a crest length of 2,380 feet. Hungry Horse will be the world's fifth highest and fourth largest concrete dam. Approximately 2,900,000 cubic yards of concrete will be placed in the structure. Cooling pipes will be placed in the concrete, through which river water will be circulated to remove heat generated by chemical action as the cement hardens. Thus heat from the interior of the mass will be removed in a matter of weeks instead of years. A total of 3,600,000 pounds of metal piping will be inserted in the dam for the cooling system. Construction of the dam and powerplant will require approximately 17,000,000 pounds of reinforcing steel and fabrication. During construction of the dam and powerplant the river will be diverted around the dam through a tunnel 36 feet in diameter and 1180 feet long.

The Hungry Horse powerplant will be a concrete structure 394 feet long and 76 feet wide to be located at the downstream toe of the dam in the river channel. The building will house four 71,500 kilowatt generators, each driven by a 105,000 horsepower turbine. The first generator is scheduled to begin production in 1952, with full capacity of 286,000 kilowatts to be available by 1953.

The reservoir to be created by the dam will form a lake 34 miles long with a capacity of 3,500,000 acre-feet. Approximately 90,000,000 board feet of standing timber will be removed from the reservoir area.

Camps have been constructed on the project for Government and contractor employees. The Bureau of Reclamation has constructed 20 permanent houses and 146 temporary housing units and the contractor has built 50 family unit dwellings, four 150-man dormitories, a large mess hall and a recreation hall.

A STATEMENT IN OPPOSITION TO THE GLACIER VIEW DAM

Conrad L. Wirth, Director National Park Service

The basic act of Congress which established the National Park Service and the various acts relating to individual parks such as Glacier require that these great natural wonders shall be so administered as to leave them unimpaired for future generations. Such legislation has reflected a strong, well-defined and enlightened public opinion which has not waned but has grown stronger through the passage of the years. This principle of protection of the natural features of the parks has been held to unswervingly by successive Secretaries of the Interior and by my predecessors. The people of the United States who understand the purposes of the national parks expect us to defend them against any molestation which cannot be justified on the basis of need so pressing that the economic stability of our country or its existence would be endangered unless such use would be permitted.

I believe deeply that that degree of defense of the national parks against economic or commercial encroachment is justified, and that the advocates of the Glacier View Dam must, before urging its construction, make a convincing showing that the economic stability of our country requires it. This showing should be based on long-range overall interest of the nation as a whole, and not solely on the economic advantage to a locality or a region.

The effects of the proposed impoundment of the North Fork of the Flathead River upon Glacier National Park would be extraordinarily serious upon those very values which the National Park Service is obliged by law, and expected by the public, to protect. They can be summarized briefly, as follows:

That portion of the park lying along the east bank of the river (which forms the western boundary of the park) contains a heavy proportion of the finest winter range of the park's notable wildlife. Approximately 19,460 acres of land lying within Glacier's boundaries would be flooded if the waters of the river were raised to the proposed 3,735-foot elevation. Nearly two-thirds of that total is now in federal ownership, and 5,535 acres belong to the State of Montana. The Congress has recently approved a method by which the State could sell these and other lands to the National Park Service to insure their protection. Our principal interest in protecting these lands is that they contain some of the finest virgin Ponderosa pine to be found anywhere in the park. Altogether, construction of the dam would result in the destruction of approximately 8,000 acres of virgin timber.

The wildlife of Glacier National Park is one of its major attractions, from the standpoint of both abundance and variety. Among all the western national parks, only here is the white-tailed deer to be found in any considerable numbers. The flooding of park land would reduce the winter range of this species by 56 per cent. In order to prevent extensive starvation it would be necessary for the Service to undertake the slaughter of most of these animals.

About 30 per cent of the winter range of the park's mule deer and elk would also be destroyed, - a major disaster to their food supply. In this part of the park, because of particularly favorable habitat for the beaver, the population of this interesting mammal is very heavy. About 70 per cent of their habitat would be flooded out, along with much of that of muskrats, badgers and many lesser animals.

Civilization is encroaching on the wilderness all over our land; what remains of it becomes increasingly precious to present-day Americans, and will be in even greater degree to Americans of the future. Here, threatened with permanent destruction, is an extraordinarily fine sample of "Original America." We cannot afford, except for the most compelling reasons, -- which we are convinced do not exist in this case - to permit this impairment of one of the finest properties of the American people.