Elm Lake Dam – Frederick SD

City:
Frederick, SD

Site Type:
Infrastructure and Utilities, Dams

New Deal Agencies:
Works Progress Administration (WPA), Work Relief Programs

Started:
1936

Completed:
1938

Quality of Information:
Very Good

Marked:
Yes

Site Survival:
Extant

Description

The Works Progress Administration built the spillway at the Elm Lake Dam in Frederick SD between 1936 and 1938.

The dam at Elm Lake was originally built both to provide a recreation destination and to create a water source for the city of Aberdeen, SD. It still serves this purpose today. The work on Elm Dam included an earthen embankment, low level outlet, concrete-lined primary spillway, and earth-cut auxiliary spillway. A ten-span bridge was also built over the approach channel to the primary spillway.

Source notes

I worked on reconstruction of the primary spillway at Elm Lake in 2021 - 2022. A plaque on the old (now demolished) spillway identified it as WPA project number 2224.

Additional research came from "Relief and Recovery: The New Deal in Brown County The Human, Architectural and Artistic Legacy."

Plaque.

Site originally submitted by Spencer Heidbrink on March 23, 2023.

Location Info


106th St.
Frederick, SD, South Dakota 57441
Brown County (& McPherson County) County

Coordinates: 45.852138, -98.708778

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