Shasta Dam

We approached the dam from I-5 going through Shasta Lake City. We got a spectacular view of the dam with Shasta Lake behind it and Mt. Shasta in the background from Shasta Dam Blvd. approaching the dam.

Ron acted as our tour guide and presented a very fascinating description of the dam, its construction, operation, and history which was crammed full of facts, figures, dates, and details. The photo captured him in a room with a view of the face of the dam. The central spillway is directly behind him although it is difficult to make out. (After all, Ron is the focus of interest here!)

Throughout the dam are literally miles of passageways called "galleries" which are used for inspection and maintenance purposes. This is a shot down one gallery hallway.

Five huge conduit pipes, each 15' in diameter, bring water into the turbines to generate electricity.

Gigantic multi-ton turbine generators are turned by water coming through the conduit pipes. Hydro-electric power produces essentially no pollution and is a totally "renewable" resource.

The location of the dam went directly across the rail line, so the railroad tracks needed to be diverted. This necessitated the digging of a tunnel and a rail spur because trains delivered a lot of materials and supplies. Yes, that's Norm in the black leather biking jacket talking with another tour guide who joined us partway through and continued with us through the remainder of the tour.

Once all but the spillway was completed, the railroad tracks were no longer needed but they needed a diversion channel for the river and the tunnel served this purpose well. The soot from the locomotives coated the inside of the tunnel, but when the river was diverted through it, it washed away the soot up to the water line. This cleansing can be seen in this picture. Once the spillway was completed, the river was returned to its normal course, the tunnel was plugged and itis now used for storage.

During the Cold War era of the 1950's and 1960's the dam was prepared to serve as a fallout shelter. There were several areas, such as the ones to which this entrance lead, which were stocked with a variety of materials and supplies to help protect many hundreds of people in case of a nuclear war.