KESWICK DAM

Above: this photograph of Keswick Dam was taken by Jervie Henry Eastman in 1946. Source: California State Archives.

The construction of this dam started in 1941 and was completed by the Guy F. Atkinson Company and with the assistance of the W.E. Kier Construction Company, in 1950, as a concrete gravity dam with embankment wings which was built nine miles downstream from Shasta Dam on the Sacramento River. Keswick Dam was one of the many pieces of the Central Valley Project which created an after bay of Lake Shasta, called Keswick Reservoir. It has the capacity of holding 23,800 cubic feet of water and is owned and operated by the Bureau of Reclamation. Height: 157 feet, Length of Crest: 1,046 feet, Spillway Capacity: 250,000 cubic feet.

Keswick Dam Powehouse and Spillway in 1949. Source: California State Archives.

RESOURCES: 

Second Dam Plan - The Record Searchligjt newspaper of Redding, November 2, 1940

Dam, Power Plant Proposed For Keswick - The Record Searchlight newspaper of Redding, January 24, 1941

Keswick Dam Approved By House Group - The Sesrchlight newspaper of Redding, May 2, 1941

Keswick Dam to be Built; Bids Sought - The Record Searchlight newspaper of Redding, June 16, 1941

Keswick Dam Towers Built - The Record Searchlight newspaper of Redding, October 17, 1941

Atkinson & Kier to Begin Pouring Concrete On Keswick Dam Nov 10 - The Record Searchlight newspaper of Redding, October 31, 1941

Keswick Dam Starts; R.R. Work Rushed -  The Record Searchlight newspaper of Redding, December 31, 1941

Keswick Dam to be 75% Completed - The Record Searchlight newspaper of Redding, January 9, 1943

Work Starts On Two Projects For Completing Keswick Dam - The Record Searchlight newspaper of Redding, April 1, 1949

Keswick Dam Goes Into Full Operation - The Record Searchlight newspaper of Redding, March 31, 1950

Keswick Dam Generator Explodes - The Record Searchlight newspaper of Redding, March 3, 1971

Keswick Gets New Transformer - The Record Searchlight newspaper of Redding, February 24, 1979

Keswick Dam Road Closures Are Scheduled - The Record Searchlight newspaper of Redding, September 8, 1979

Water Storage - The Sacramento Bee newspaper of Sacramento, December 31, 1980

THE CLARA MINE AT KESWICK, CALIFORNIA.

On this episode of Exploring Shasta County History, Jeremy takes you on another exciting mining adventure with his friend, Ralph Bentrim. This former mining property embraces Ralph's property at Keswick. This mining property is a former Au (gold) mine called the Clara which has been developed in parts to allow the Sacramento River Trail to traverse over it. Mining activities has been idled here for many years. The mine is noted as a small producer of gold which was last owned by private parties in 1974. According to county reports it had three parallel veins hosted in granite porphyry, a payshoot of 20 in. wide, 160-feet long, which carried free gold. It also featured a 700-foot adit. Today, the former mining property includes open pits covered in vegetation, a plugged adit and plugged shafts. Check it out, and please subscribe to Exploring Shasta County History, and my YouTube channel.

Above: a plugged shaft of the Clara mine. This photograph was taken by Jeremy Tuggle on May 27, 2021.

THE ADVENTURE: 

Filmed on location May 27, 2021.

RESOURCES:

Mines and Mineral Resources of Shasta County, Siskiyou County, and Trinity County, by G. Chester Brown, ©1915 published by California State Printing Office.

Mines and Mineral Resources of Shasta County, California – County Report 6 – by Philip A. Lydon and J.C. O’ Brien ©1974 by California Division of Mines and Geology