The Lahontan Dam was built by the Bureau of Reclamation as part of the Newlands Project. It is an earthen structure, 162 ft (49 m) high by 1,700 ft (520 m) long and contains 733,000 cu yd (560,000 m3) of fill. When it was completed in 1915, it was the largest earth-fill dam in the United States. The reservoir receives water from an area of 1,450 sq mi (3,800 km2) and provides a storage capacity of 295,500 acre⋅ft (364,500 dam3) at spillway crest. An additional 23,900 acre⋅ft (29,500 dam3) can be stored by raising the gates, bringing the total capacity to 319,400 acre⋅ft (394,000 dam3).
The primary purpose of the dam is to impound water for irrigation use. The site also includes hydroelectric generators with a total capacity of 4,000 kilowatts.[3]