Isabella Dam
| Isabella Dam | |
|---|---|
| Location | Kern County, California |
| Coordinates | 35°38′46″N 118°28′56″W / 35.64611°N 118.48222°WCoordinates: 35°38′46″N 118°28′56″W / 35.64611°N 118.48222°W |
| Construction began | 1948 |
| Opening date | 1953 |
| Operator(s) | U.S. Army Corps of Engineers |
| Dam and spillways | |
| Impounds | Lower Kern River |
| Height | 185 ft (56 m) |
| Length | 1,695 ft (517 m) |
| Spillways | Ungated concrete overflow |
| Spillway capacity | 49,000 cu ft/s (1,400 m3/s) |
| Reservoir | |
| Creates | Lake Isabella |
| Total capacity | 568,000 acre·ft (0.701 km3) |
| Catchment area | 2,074 sq mi (5,370 km2) |
| Surface area | 11,000 acres (4,500 ha) |
| Power station | |
| Installed capacity | 12 MW |
| Annual generation | 54,713,000 KWh |
Isabella Dam is an embankment dam located in the Kern River Valley, about halfway down the Kern River course, between the towns of Kernville and Lake Isabella in Kern County, California.
Isabella Dam serves agricultural, hydroelectric, and flood control uses. Lake Isabella (reservoir created by dam) also serves as a recreational and tourist attraction. Water sports, fishing, boating, camping, and hiking are common throughout the area, as well as the Sequoia National Forest.
The town of Isabella was founded in 1893, during the 1893 Columbian Expedition, by Steven Barton in honor of Queen Isabella of Spain. In 1948, Congress appropriated funds to build a dam to prevent flooding of Bakersfield. The city had been flooded in 1867 and 1893. In 1950, while the dam was under construction, they experienced flooding measuring 30,000 cubic feet (850 m3) of water per second. The dam was completed in March 1953. The U.S. Corps of Engineers built earthen dams across two forks of the Kern River to create the Isabella reservoir, Kern County's largest body of water year round with a surface area of 11,200 acres. The town had to be moved 1.5 miles south, after the creation of Lake Isabella, when construction of the Isabella Dam was completed. The town of Kernville, originally known as Whiskey Flat during the Kern River gold rush era in the 1850s, also had to be moved to higher ground as well. Most of the original town had been razed in 1948, in preparation for the construction of the dam.
Below Isabella Dam, the Kern River flows southwest through approximately 30 miles of a canyon, locally known as the Kern Canyon, with many steep cliffs and turns along the southern edge of the Greenhorn Mountains, roughly 15 miles east of Bakersfield. Once it reaches Bakersfield, the river loses most of its remaining flow; much of it is diverted and channelized before reaching the city center.
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