Elephant Butte Dike

Infobox_nrhp | name =Elephant Butte Dam
nrhp_type =

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caption = The spillway is in the lower left corner of the picture and the power plant is located at the base of the opposite side of the dam.
nearest_city= Elephant Butte, New Mexico
area =
built =1910
architect= Louis C. Hill
architecture= Other
added = April 9, 1979
governing_body = BUREAU OF RECLAMATION
refnum=79001556cite web|url=http://www.nr.nps.gov/|title=National Register Information System|date=2007-01-23|work=National Register of Historic Places|publisher=National Park Service]

Elephant Butte Dike or Elephant Butte Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the Rio Grande near Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. The river was dammed here, impounding the Elephant Butte Reservoir for recreation and agriculture, lessening the downstream flow from a "Rio Bravo" to a stream a foot deep.

The dam is part of the Rio Grande Project, a project to provide power and irrigation to south-central New Mexico and west Texas. The United States Congress authorized construction of the dam on February 25, 1905. It was completed in 1916 but allowed to begin filling in 1915.cite web | date = December 28 2005 | url = http://www.usbr.gov/power/data/sites/elephant/elephant.html | title = Elephant Butte Powerplant | work = Rio Grande Project | publisher = Bureau of Reclamation | accessmonthday = October 11 | accessyear = 2006]

Elephant Butte Dam is 301 feet (91.7 m) high, 1,674 feet (510.2 m) long including the spillway and is made from 618,785 cubic yards (473,095 m³) of concrete. The width at the top of the dam is 18 feet (5.5 m) at the top and 228 feet (69.5 m) at the base.cite web | date = August 22 2006 | url = http://www.usbr.gov/dataweb/dams/nm00129.htm | title = Elephant Butte Dam | work = Dataweb | publisher = Bureau of Reclamation | accessmonthday = October 11 | accessyear = 2006]

The dam can hold 2,065,010 acre-feet (2,547,152,330 m³) of water from a drainage of 28,900 square miles (74,850 km²). It provides irrigation to 178,000 acres (720 km²) of land. The dam also contains a 27,945-kilowatt hydroelectric powerplant. The current turbine was installed in 1940 and generates 38,449,061 kWh per year (as of 2005). It is at an elevation of 4390 ft (1338 m). [cite web | url=Gnis3|923899 | title=Elephant Butte Dike | work=Geographic Names Information System | publisher=United States Geological Survey | accessdate=2006-05-12]

The name "Elephant Butte" refers to a volcanic core similar to Devils Tower in Wyoming. It is now an island in the lake. The butte was said to have the shape of an elephant.

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