History
Early Settlers
Mormon settlers founded the area of Hyrum, which is located in Cache Valley. Hyrum is named after the brother of the founder of the Mormon Church. Before the dam was built in 1939, Mormon settlers had to dig a nine-mile canal from the Little Bear River for farm irrigation in Hyrum.
Years before the Mormon settlers arrived in the valley, General William H. Ashley stopped near what is now the edge of Hyrum Reservoir and cached $150,000 worth of furs, mostly beaver, in the winter of 1825-26. They were stored in a cave dug in a clay bank until they were retrieved the following summer. This history resulted in the French-Canadian name of Cache Valley and Cache County.
To further your history knowledge of Cache Valley visit American West Heritage Center
Dam Construction (1934)
Hyrum Dam and Reservoir are located on the Little Bear River just south of Hyrum City. The dam is a rolled earth and rockfill structure containing 352,000 cubic yards of earth fill, 62,000 cubic yards of rockfill, and 13,000 cubic yards of riprap and gravel blanket, for a total of about 430,000 cubic yards of material. The construction period was 1934 to 1935. The date of closure (first storage) was April 1, 1935, and the first water was made available in July 1935.
For more information on the construction of the dam visit US Bureau of Reclamation
State Park Designation (1959)
(More Information Coming Soon)
Sources