15 Things You May Not Know About The Chelan Dam

15 Things You May Not Have Known About the Chelan Dam

1. The first electric lights powered by the Chelan Dam were turned on in 1903.

2. The first Chelan Dam was built in 1892 and washed out later that year.

3. The second dam at the south end of Lake Chelan was built the next year in 1893; it lasted about one year before being wiped out by a massive flood.

4. A third dam was built in the early 1900s and lasted until the current dam’s construction in 1925. Construction of the current dam was completed in 1927.

5. The Chelan Dam has eight spillway gates that release water down the usually dry Chelan River channel.

6. The Chelan Dam is 490 feet across.

7. Water is delivered from the dam to the Chelan Falls Powerhouse through a 2.2 mile long underground tunnel (called a penstock) where it is used for the production of power before it empties into the Columbia River. In this over two mile trip to the powerhouse, the water drops almost 350 feet.

8. The original turbines installed during the 1925 construction of the dam were still in use until 1985 and 1986 when they were replaced.

9. The Chelan Dam provides for a rare sight in that the river bed in front of it is almost always dry.

10. The Chelan Dam is home to two power generators.

11. The Chelan Dam measures in at 40 feet high.

12. The powerhouse of the Chelan Dam is 140 feet long, 100 feet wide and 124 feet high.

13. The original generators are still in use and were rewound in 1951 and 1952.

14. While the dam is located in the city of Chelan, the powerhouse is officially near the community of Chelan Falls.

15. Peak generating capacity of the Chelan Dam is 59,000 kilowatts.

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