Elephant Butte Dam, New Mexico…

Just east of my current location in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico is Elephant Butte Lake which was created by the Elephant Butte Dam.

As always you may left click upon an image to see an enlarged view and then click once again to see an even larger view...

In this first photo you can see the dam with the lake in the background and what remains of the Rio Grande River flowing to the left…

The next three photos show the views looking left to right from my vantage point overlooking the dam…

When the dam was completed in 1916, it was classified as the second largest irrigation dam in the World. Here’s a plaque commemorating the event…

Here’s an historical marker describing the dam…

So where does the name Elephant Butte come from? This next photo shows the answer. Picture the island with water where it has been in the past. Someone with a great imagination thought it looked like a lying-down elephant. What do you think???

Locals tell me the water level is down 120 feet from its design depth. With 10 dams above the Elephant Butte Dam…it’s no wonder the once mighty Rio Grande has trouble supplying sufficient water…

You can read about those dams by clicking this link…
http://www.fws.gov/southwest/mrgbi/Resources/Dams/index.html

You can read all about Elephant Butte Dam by clicking this Wikipedia link…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant_Butte_Dam

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2012
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