Maps and Exploration

Elephant Butte Reservoir

Elephant Butte Reservoir or Elephant Butte Lake is the largest reservoir in the U.S. state of New Mexico, 130 miles (289 km) from El Paso, Texas, and 5 miles (8.0 km) north of Truth or Consequences. The reservoir began filling in 1915, and at full capacity became the largest man-made lake in the world. Built as part of the Rio Grande Project, it was intended to revive the fertility of farmland soil in the Rincon and Mesilla Valleys. Today, the reservoir's storage remains crucial to the Rio Grande, as it provides power and irrigation water to New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico. It is impounded by Elephant Butte Dam and became part of the largest state park in New Mexico, Elephant Butte Lake State Park, in 1964. Before it was known as Elephant Butte, there were three prospective names — Lake Esperanza, Lake Hall, and Lake Engle. Ultimately, Elephant Butte Reservoir was named after the Elephant-shaped butte in its territory. The reservoir can hold 2,065,010 acre-feet (2.54715×109 m3) of water from a drainage of 28,900 square miles (74,850 km2). It provides irrigation to 178,000 acres (72,000 ha) of farmland.

Also on this shelf

See also

• ▸Fox Theatre (Detroit)
• ▸Deir Hajla
• ▸Fairfax County, Virginia

Uncatalogued shelf

Text from Wikipedia; plate via Wikimedia Commons. Text CC BY-SA 4.0; plate freely licensed (see Commons). Source record. Images and catalogue data are reproduced from open-access collections.