French Lake Reservoir
French Lake Reservoir is a reservoir in Nevada County, California, surrounded by the Tahoe National Forest. The dam, French Lake Dam, began as an earth-and-rock-fill structure in 1859 and is considered by some to be among the first rock-fill dams. It was rebuilt in 1948 and now holds back Canyon Creek for flood control, irrigation water storage, municipal drinking water, and hydropower.
The dam is about 100 feet high and 300 feet long at the crest. The reservoir covers about 337 acres (136 hectares) and can hold up to 13,800 acre-feet of water (about 17,000,000 cubic meters). It is operated by the Nevada Irrigation District. The nearby townsite of French Lake is a ghost town from the California Gold Rush era.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 13:22 (CET).