Newton Reservoir

Early irrigation storage in Cache Valley

Newton Reservoir, about a mile north of Newton in Cache County, Utah, was listed on the National Register on 30 November 1973 (NRIS 73001860) for agriculture and invention. The listing covers the historic dam-and-reservoir site associated with one of Utah’s earliest large irrigation storage projects. Significant years on the register record include 1871 and 1874.

Bureau of Reclamation project history is the clearest primary account. After a disastrous dry year in 1870, Newton settlers voted in March 1871 to dam Clarkston Creek. They finished an earth dam in 1872 with ox- and horse-drawn scrapers, storing about 1,566 acre-feet. Reclamation states this was the first large body of irrigation storage in Utah and probably the first of its kind in the United States — the basis for the “invention” significance area on the atlas description.

What stands now

The pioneer dam proved too small. The modern Newton Project replaced it with a Reclamation dam about 1.5 miles downstream. Construction began in spring 1941 with WPA labor, paused in late 1942 under wartime stop orders, resumed in 1943, and finished in June 1946. Newton Dam is an earthfill structure about two miles north of town, 101 feet high, with roughly 410,000 cubic yards of fill. Reservoir capacity is about 5,600 acre-feet. A gated service spillway, a long uncontrolled emergency spillway near the west abutment, and a four-foot horseshoe outlet conduit complete the works. About seven miles of main canals (Main, East, and Highline) deliver supplemental water to roughly 2,861 acres. Operation transferred to the Newton Water Users Association on 1 January 1948.

The National Register entry addresses the historic reservoir concept and early dam site; the 1940s Reclamation dam is the dominant structure visitors see today. Do not conflate the 1872 pioneer dam with the 1946 dam without reading both layers.

Access and limits

This is a working irrigation reservoir, not a national park unit. Public access to the water and shoreline follows local and Reclamation rules, which can change with water level, water-user operations, and safety orders. There is no visitor center. Newton is reached from US-91 / local Cache Valley roads north of Logan. Winter ice and spring runoff both matter for shoreline conditions.

Do not walk dam crests, outlet works, or canal headgates. Those are industrial hydraulic structures. Contact Newton Water Users Association or Reclamation’s Provo Area Office for current recreation or access questions rather than assuming open shoreline. Omitted: fish stocking status, boat-ramp rules, and any fee schedule not published on the Reclamation project page.