Silver Lake Reservoir – Rochester MN

Description

Various New Deal agencies built the Silver Lake Reservoir in Rochester MN.

According to the City of Rochester “Silver Lake is actually a reservoir that was created by first, hand-digging a basin to hold water, and then constructing a dam from 1935-1936 to back-up river water. It was built for half a million dollars during the 1930’s Great Depression as a work relief project, providing work for over 400 unemployed men. Various New Deal programs supported the effort. The project was started by the Civil Works Administration (formed as part of the Federal Emergency Relief Act in 1933), then joined by the State Emergency Relief Administration in 1934, and later transitioned to a Works Project Administration project in 1935. Today, the water surface area of the Lake is nearly 40 acres. The land on which the Lake now lies was once a combination of small gravel and sand pits, poor pasture land, and ‘unimproved’ marshy land.”