Deadwood Reservoir, body of water

Deadwood Reservoir is a 3,000-acre reservoir on the Deadwood River in Valley County, Idaho, held by a concrete arch dam completed in 1931. It sits at 5,334 feet in the mountains of Boise National Forest, about 25 miles southeast of Cascade. The river below the dam feeds the South Fork of the Payette River.

Deadwood Dam was approved by President Calvin Coolidge in 1928; the isolated site required substantial road building before construction of the concrete arch dam began in late 1929 and was completed in March 1931. The dam impounds the Deadwood River, which flows south as a tributary of the South Fork of the Payette River.

The reservoir takes its name from Deadwood River, which flows into it from the north and continues south below Deadwood Dam. The surrounding slopes of the Boise National Forest are covered with evergreens, mostly pines, and huckleberries grow in the area. Visitors today come for camping, water skiing, canoeing and fishing.

The reservoir sits at 5,334 ft (1,626 m) in the mountains of Boise National Forest, about 25 miles (40 km) southeast of Cascade. The dam site was isolated enough that building the access roads was a major part of the project. Rain and wind can arrive unpredictably, much like at other high-mountain lakes in Idaho.

The reservoir's fish list includes landlocked fall chinook salmon and bull trout, species that hint at the cold, deep water held behind the concrete arch dam. The dam itself was finished in March 1931 after construction began in late 1929.