BOULDER’S WATERWORKS

The Albion Lake Dam
is visible in the background,
on the right, in
this view of the mining
camp of Albion taken
shortly after 1913.
Courtesy Alan Cass
40
ALBION LAKE RESERVOIR
Albion Lake was the last lake in the watershed area to be raised by the City for use as a
reservoir. (The City would later buy the five Green Lakes with the dams already existing on
three of them.) Surveying for the 60-foot-rock-fill dam had begun prior to the City's 1907
purchase of land near the Albion mining camp from the Cashier Mining and Milling Company.
70 It was agreed that the Cashier Company could capture any water seeping out of
Albion Lake to run through its planned Cascade Pipeline that the company would construct
to generate hydropower for mining operations. 71 By 1908, the pipeline drove a hydroelectric
plant located below Albion Lake. 72
Plans for the City's new dam included an outlet channel, a bunk house, and a construction
plant, as well as repairs on the road between Albion Lake and Hill Siding (a stop on the
narrow-gauge railroad). In addition, a new road was constructed to Silver Lake. The 1910
Boulder County Miner Magazine Supplement mentioned the City’s concerns about the
disposal of surface contamination from the Albion mines. At the time, the output of lead
in the previous year had amounted to more than $10,000, with silver and gold production
more than $7,000. 73
Nevertheless, construction began by 1910. Claire Victor Mann, an assistant city engineer,
supervised the dam’s construction. Mann’s crew of 175 men worked day and night, made
possible by electric lighting powered by the Cascade Pipeline hydro plant. In addition,
steam-powered tramways transported construction materials along cables, thereby avoiding
2,000 feet of steep roads. 74 Mine dump and mill tailings from the Cashier Mining and
Milling Company’s Snowy Range Tunnel and Albion Mill were used as material for the
dam. 75 By 1912, two-thirds of its construction had been completed at a cost of $210,000,
but the City ran out of money. Although the dam was originally designed to be 60 feet
high, it was only built to a height of 39 feet, and no new work was performed after 1913. 76
The much-larger Barker Dam––that created Barker Reservoir––would be the dam that
made the news.