WASHINGTON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY (Washington County, Utah)
CREATION OF THE SHEM DAM
on the Santa Clara River/Creek
HISTORY
HAER No. UT-96, Pages 1Shem Dam was built in 1934–35 by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) as a project sponsored by the U.S. Forest Service, Dixie National Forest. The dam was designed by two Utah engineers: Luther M. Winsor, an irrigation and flood-control specialist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Agricultural Engineering, who was assigned to design and oversee Forest Service flood-control projects in Utah; and Leo A. Snow, an engineer and surveyor from nearby St. George, Utah. It is one of the largest dams built by the CCC in Utah.
HAER No. UT-96, Pages 4
Construction January 1934–February 1935 The first sheet of the original construction drawings for Shem Dam, a plan view of the overall site and structure, is dated January 16, 1934. 1 Construction was underway by February 1, 1934, using the labor of a CCC company based in nearby St. George, and preliminary work at the dam site had probably begun a month earlier. 2 In April 1934, the CCC company relocated to another camp for the summer, leaving the dam project unfinished. The same company returned to the St. George camp in October 1934 and continued to work on the dam over the winter. 3 In February 1935, the superintendent of the CCC camp told the St. George newspaper that the dam was complete: “Monday, February 4th, saw the last cement poured into its construction. A crew of a few men will be used for the next week or ten days in finishing the last construction details.”4
HAER No. UT-96, Pages 12 (Historical Context)
The construction of Shem Dam in 1934–35, during the depths of the Great Depression, was part of a national response to two circumstances viewed as central to the ongoing economic crisis: widespread unemployment and unchecked degradation of the natural environment. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, within days of his inauguration in March 1933, took a major step to address both problems by asking Congress to create the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Over the nine years of its existence (1933–42), the CCC put millions of unemployed young men around the country to work on diverse federally sponsored projects—planting trees, preventing soil erosion, and otherwise protecting and developing natural resources.27 Shem Dam, built by a CCC company under the direction of the U.S. Forest Service to address flood-control and irrigation problems, was unambiguously a part of this broad national context. But the history of how the dam was planned, built, and used was also determined by unique local circumstances, notably the location of the dam in a part of Utah where a Mormon tradition of irrigated farming, developed first in the temperate parts of the state, was adapted to the hotter, drier environment of Washington County. The historical significance of the dam is also evident in the roles played by the two engineers who designed it and supervised its construction, Luther M. Winsor and Leo A. Snow, both natives of Utah and descendants of Mormon farmers.
HAER No. UT-96, Pages 12-17 (Historical Context)
TBD (Historical Context)
HAER No. UT-96, Pages 23-28
TBD
PHOTOS
WCHS-01033 Winsor Dam on the Santa Clara Creek
Other WCHS photos:
WCHS-03901 Photo of a 1933 meeting at the site selected for the new Shem Dam
WCHS-03902 Photo of a 1933 meeting at the site selected for the new Shem Dam
WCHS-03903 Photo of the Shem Dam site at the start of construction, following excavation for the foundation
WCHS-03904 Photo of the beginning of construction on the Shem Dam spillway
WCHS-03905 Photo of the beginning of construction on the Shem Dam spillway
WCHS-03906 Photo of the beginning of construction on the Shem Dam spillway
WCHS-03907 Photo of the application of a masonry veneer to the downstream face of the Shem Dam abutments
WCHS-03908 Photo of the application of a masonry veneer to the downstream face of the Shem Dam abutments
WCHS-03909 Photo of the application of a masonry veneer to the downstream face of the Shem Dam abutments
WCHS-03910 Photo of the application of a masonry veneer to the downstream face of the Shem Dam abutments
WCHS-03911 Photo of the upstream face during application of a masonry veneer to the downstream face
WCHS-03912 Photo of the downstream face of the Shem Dam spillway, during application of a masonry veneer
WCHS-03913 Photo of the application of a masonry veneer to the downstream face of the Shem Dam abutments
WCHS-03934 Photo of the front page of the The Cactus Chronicle, March 14, 1935
REFERENCES
Historic American Engineering Record, Shem Dam (Winsor Dam), HAER No. UT-96Prepared by Scott O'Mack, William Self Associates, Inc.,
for the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)
March 2016, 96 Pages (see pp. 1-2, 4-9, 12-17, 23-28)
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