They Almost Dammed Horseshoe Bend!

Added: 2026-05-06

[00:00:00]This is Horseshoe Bend. Millions of people come here to take the same photo, but almost nobody knows this Bend was once studied as a place to build a dam.

[00:00:09]Not the Glen Canyon Dam near Page, a different dam, an earlier dam, one that would have changed this view forever. In the 1920s, engineer Eugene Clyde LaRue looked at this canyon [music] and saw more than a landmark. He saw a way to control the Colorado River. Today, I'm standing near the area LaRue called Glen Canyon Dam site number two. This was one of the early dam sites studied before the modern Glen Canyon Dam was built upstream near Page, Arizona. The wild part is this, the same giant river bend that makes this place famous [music] is one reason engineers were interested in it. Welcome to Horseshoe Bend on this beautiful afternoon. We're here to see a dam site that never was, dam site number two in Glen Canyon. Eugene Clyde LaRue in the 1920s. LaRue wrote a government report called Water, [music] Power, and Flood Control of the Colorado River below Green River, Utah. That title sounds dry, but the idea behind it was huge. LaRue was asking a simple question, where could the Colorado River be controlled? Glen Canyon was one of the most important areas in his report.

[00:01:15]To most people, Glen Canyon was a remote canyon. To LaRue, it was a giant natural reservoir waiting to be used.

[00:01:22]And this is where the story gets interesting. Before Lake Powell existed, before Page existed, and before the dam we know today was built, engineers were already mapping out how to turn this canyon into a water storage system. In 1921, the Geological Survey worked with the Southern California Edison Company to survey Glen Canyon. They mapped the canyon up to the elevation of 3,900 ft above sea level. That means they were trying to see how much water the canyon can hold. LaRue wrote that a dam a few miles above Lee's Ferry can make the reservoir big enough to regulate the Colorado River. That was the goal, store the floodwater, release it when needed, use it for farms, cities, and [music] power. But LaRue did not just study one location. He had a favorite site closer to Lee's Ferry. Then he looked at other choices. One of those choices was right here in the Horseshoe Bend area.

[00:02:16]LaRue's favorite location was called Glen Canyon Dam [music] site number one.

[00:02:20]It was about 4 mi above Lee's Ferry.

[00:02:23]This site was in lower Glen Canyon, closer to the old river crossing, and easier to reach. The river there sat around 3,127 ft above sea level. LaRue believed a dam there could raise the water about 386 [music] ft. That would create about 8 million acre-feet of storage. That is a massive amount of water, enough to change how the Colorado River worked downstream. Engineers also studied the rock. They drilled into the riverbed and the canyon walls. They found sandstone, tested core samples, and looked at how deep the bedrock was under the river.

[00:02:57]But here is a part that connects directly to this view. LaRue's second site was further upstream, >> [music] >> and the biggest feature was the shape of the river itself. So, dam site number two here at Horseshoe Bend is 9 and 1/2 river miles from Lee's Ferry, and LaRue liked this spot specifically cuz the bend in the river. He thought it was a good spot specifically for tunnels to go through the canyon walls. And it's interesting to think that back in the day, he had chosen Glen Canyon over Hoover Dam. And all the politicians back in the day wanted to choose Black Canyon where Hoover Dam is now because it's closer to California. But LaRue thought that Glen Canyon was the ideal spot for the first dam on the Colorado River, the first major big dam. So, he had two spots. This is dam site number two, then downstream towards Lee's Ferry, dam site number one, which he preferred. Today, people come here because the river makes a perfect curve through the canyon.

[00:03:49]>> [music] >> But to an engineer, that curve can mean something else. The river almost loops back on itself. That creates a [music] narrow section of rock between different parts of the river. LaRue said it gave this site some favorable features. A dam here [music] could have used spillway tunnels about 1,150 ft long. Those tunnels would move floodwater through the rock and send it back into the river below the dam. So, when people look over the edge today, they see a famous view, but LaRue saw a possible machine, a canyon bend that could help control one of the wildest rivers in America.

[00:04:22]Site number two had problems. It was harder to reach. It was further from important building [music] materials.

[00:04:28]LaRue also said the depth of the bedrock in the river channel was not fully known.

[00:04:33]But LaRue was not thinking small. He believed Glen Canyon storage could change the entire lower Colorado River, and the reason was floods.

[00:04:42]>> [music] >> Before the big dams, the Colorado River was a very different river. It rose hard in the spring.

[00:04:49]>> [music] >> It carried heavy sediment. It flooded low areas downstream. LaRue studied old river records. He wrote that one of the biggest floods in recent memory happened in 1884. [music] That flood may have reached about 250,000 cubic feet per second. That is hard [music] to picture from this overlook today. Most people now see a controlled river, but before the dams, this river could become violent. LaRue believed that if Glen Canyon could store about 8 million acre-feet of water, major floods downstream could be reduced. [music] He estimated that big floods at Yuma could be cut down to 50,000 cubic feet per second or less. That was the promise, hold back the danger, control the timing, make the river useful. But there was another part of LaRue's report [music] that feels strange today. He did not only talk about dams and floods, he also talked about Rainbow Bridge.

[00:05:41]Rainbow Bridge is one of the most famous natural bridges in the world. Today, people often connect it with debates over Lake Powell and flooded canyons.

[00:05:49]But LaRue wrote about it in a very different way. He said that if Glen Canyon's reservoir rose to about 3,513 ft above sea level, it would not interfere with Rainbow Bridge. The water would only back up about a mile into Forbidden Canyon. But then he added something bigger. If the dam raised water all the way to the abutments of Rainbow Bridge, the reservoir could store about 32 million acre-feet of water. LaRue also believed that a reservoir would make it easier for tourists to reach Rainbow Bridge by boat. He estimated more than 200,000 visitors a year could come to the region once roads were built. That shows how different the thinking was back [music] then in 1925.

[00:06:27]What some people see today as a lost canyon, engineers then saw access, storage, tourism, and progress.

[00:06:34]>> [music] >> And that is what makes this story bigger than Horseshoe Bend. This was not just about one dam site. This was about the future of the Colorado River.

[00:06:44]LaRue's exact dam sites were not chosen.

[00:06:46]The dam was not built here at Horseshoe Bend. It was not even built at his favorite site near Lee's Ferry, either.

[00:06:53]Years later, Glen Canyon Dam was built further upstream [music] near Page, Arizona. That dam created Lake Powell.

[00:06:59]It flooded Glen Canyon. It changed the Colorado River.

[00:07:03]So, even though LaRue's early sites were passed over, the main idea survived.

[00:07:08]Glen Canyon became storage. [music] The river became controlled. And the Colorado River was turned into a system of dams, reservoirs, [music] releases, and rules.

[00:07:19]That's why this overlook is more than a photo spot. Horseshoe Bend is a place where two versions of the Colorado River meet, the natural river people love to see, [music] and the engineered river people depend on. Standing here today, it's hard to imagine a dam in this canyon. The view feels too famous, too natural, too complete. But in LaRue's report, this bend was part of a serious plan to control the Colorado River, a plan with dams, tunnels, [music] spillways, powerhouses, and reservoirs.

[00:07:50]That dam was never built here, but the dream behind it became real upstream.

[00:07:56]So, the next time someone stands at Horseshoe Bend and sees only a beautiful curve in the river, remember this.

[00:08:02]Engineers once looked at this same bend and saw a place to stop the Colorado River.

[00:08:07]Well, obviously the dam never happened over here. Took 20 more years, 25 years before they decided after World War II to build Glen Canyon Dam where it's at now, river mile 15. But Horseshoe Bend is what it is now, popular tourist destination. Tourists don't know they would have saw a dam over there back in the past if they continued to go for it back in the day.

[00:08:27]But Eugene Clyde LaRue, shout out to Airship Books in Page, Arizona for that amazing history book, 100-year-old book. So, go check them out in Page, Arizona. This is all I got for you guys. Hope I made it fun for you.

[00:08:38]Hope you enjoyed the history segment, and I'm out. See you next time. Peace.