Jackson Lake Dam is a concrete and earth-fill dam on the Snake River at the outlet of Jackson Lake in Grand Teton National Park (GTNP). It is a component of the Minidoka Project, a series of federal dams and reservoirs constructed to control flows on the Snake River in Wyoming and Idaho for the purpose of supplying water for more than one million acres of irrigated farmland in Idaho. Jackson Lake is a natural lake, but the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) constructed the dam at its outlet in 1907 to provide additional water storage. The dam is operated by the BOR under a Memorandum of Understanding dated November 29, 1956, between the BOR and the National Park Service (NPS). The lands on which the dam and associated operational areas are located were withdrawn for reclamation purposes long before the establishment of the park, but were included within, and are considered to be part of Grand Teton National Park. The dam was authorized by Congress solely to store irrigation water and has never been used to generate hydroelectric power.
Read more in the PDF: Jackson Lake Dam White Paper
