History
Prior to impoundment by the Oroville Dam, the current main basin of Lake Oroville was the location of the confluence of the North Fork Feather River with the Feather River (39°33′20″N 121°28′0″W / 39.55556°N 121.466667°W / 39.55556; -121.466667) and the now-inundated towns of Bidwell (39°33′25″N 121°27′56″W / 39.55694°N 121.46556°W / 39.55694; -121.46556) and Land (39°33′13″N 121°28′04″W / 39.55361°N 121.46778°W / 39.55361; -121.46778). Completed in 1968, Oroville Dam is the tallest earthen dam located in the United States, measuring over 770 feet (235 m) high and 6,920 feet (2109 m) across. The dam was the largest earth-fill dam in the world until succeeded by Aswan High Dam in Egypt. It was built by the California Department of Water Resources as part of the California State Water Project. The dam houses the Edward Hyatt Powerplant, an underground hydro-electric plant that was completed in 1967. Six generators are used to provide a maximum generating capacity of 819 MVA.
Read more about this topic: Lake Oroville
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of the Victorian Age will never be written: we know too much about it.”
—Lytton Strachey (1880–1932)
“We don’t know when our name came into being or how some distant ancestor acquired it. We don’t understand our name at all, we don’t know its history and yet we bear it with exalted fidelity, we merge with it, we like it, we are ridiculously proud of it as if we had thought it up ourselves in a moment of brilliant inspiration.”
—Milan Kundera (b. 1929)
“No one can understand Paris and its history who does not understand that its fierceness is the balance and justification of its frivolity. It is called a city of pleasure; but it may also very specially be called a city of pain. The crown of roses is also a crown of thorns. Its people are too prone to hurt others, but quite ready also to hurt themselves. They are martyrs for religion, they are martyrs for irreligion; they are even martyrs for immorality.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)