12/26/2011, Herald and News Looking Back: This week in Klamath Basin history

Completion of the Keno regulating dam in the Klamath River

This week in Klamath Basin history the week of Dec. 24-30, 1931: Completion of the Keno regulating dam in the Klamath River was recently announced. The cost of the regulating works was approximately $150,000. A reef in the river at Keno was cut and a needle-type dam, 6-feet high and 420-feet long with two gates, was constructed to maintain the elevation of the water in the river between 4,086.5 and 4,085 feet above sea level. The dam will care for a maximum flood of 10,000 second feet, the largest amount of water recorded at the site, which occurred in the spring of 1904 when thousands of acres of land were flooded. 10,000 second feet of water is three times the greatest amount of water in the river since 1921 when the Link River dam was built.