Garrison Dam is located between Riverdale and Pick City, named after the town of Garrison, directly north of the dam, across the reservoir. The dam is approximately midway between Bismarck and Minot, about west of U.S. Highway 83.
History
The dam was part of a flood control and hydroelectric power generation project named the Pick-Sloan Project along the river, after the two plan developers, Col. Lewis A. Pick and William Glenn Sloan. In order to construct the dam the US government needed to purchase in the Fort Berthold Reservation that would be flooded by the creation of Lake Sakakawea. These lands were owned by the Three Affiliated Tribes, which "had been their home for perhaps more than a millennium". Threatened by confiscation under eminent domain, the tribes protested. A complete block of Garrison Dam power was denied because it would violate the 1935 Rural Electrification Act. The tribes achieved remuneration, but lost 94% of their agricultural land. in 1947, when they were forced to accept $5,105,625, increased to $7.5 million in 1949. The final settlement legislation denied tribes' right to use the reservoir shoreline for grazing, hunting, fishing or other purposes, including irrigation development and royalty rights on all subsurface minerals within the reservoir area. About 1,700 residents were forcibly relocated, some to New Town, North Dakota. Thus Garrison Dam almost totally destroyed the traditional way of life for the Three Affiliated Tribes. Construction on the $300-million dam project began in 1947, and its embankment was enclosed in April 1953. The dam was dedicated by PresidentEisenhowertwo months later. The Corps of Engineers completed earthwork in the fall of 1954. Garrison Dam is one of six Missouri River Main stem dams operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District. The dam upstream of Garrison Dam is Fort Peck Dam. The dams downstream of Garrison Dam are: Oahe Dam, Big Bend Dam, Fort Randall Dam, and Gavins Point Dam. These six mainstem dams impound these Missouri River reservoirs with a total combined water storage capacity of approximately and approximately of water surface area. In June 2011, in response to the 2011 Missouri River Floods, the dam was releasing over, which greatly exceeded its previous record release of set in 1997. The first use of the emergency spillway due to flooding started on June 1, 2011 at 8:00am.
