Desert Living Tip #18: Tempe Town Lake

Excerpts below from The City of Tempe's Tempe Town Lake Timeline:

Between 500 A.D. to 1450 A.D. prehistoric Hohokam Indians created an extensive desert valley canal system. As late as the 1800s, the Salt River flowed through this area uncontrolled. A large number of farmers and immigrants settled the area near the river. In 1871, Charles Trumbull Hayden started the Hayden Ferry crossing at the Salt River "Narrows," now the entrance to downtown Tempe. Hayden was one of the entrepreneurial pioneers who founded Tempe. His flour mill made use of the water from the river through a canal. The water ran through the mill, over a large screw that turned the mill. Leaving the mill, water fell over a 25-foot waterfall to the base of Hayden Butte. The 1880s saw construction of the first railroad bridge. This crossing at the river allowed for the exploration of supplies such as dates, citrus and flour.



Theodore Roosevelt dedicated Roosevelt Dam in 1911. The dam, constructed on the upper Salt River, slowed the flow of water through the Valley and provided water retention and agricultural irrigation control. In the 1920s, the Salt River provided cool escape from the desert heat. Individuals gathered near Tempe Beach Park and swam at the base of the State Bridge. In the early 1980s, floods damaged bridges across the river. The old Mill Avenue Bridge was the only bridge that remained open. Employees and residents used boats and trains to cross the river. By March of 1989, a groundbreaking ceremony near Tempe Beach Park marked the beginning of construction of the river channelization. This construction recovered more than 840 acres of flood plain land that would be available for later development.





In 1996, Tempe completed a lake capacity needs study and started a lake management plan. The City sent Requests for Qualifications to manufacturers of inflatable dams.



On June 2, 1999, Water from the Central Arizona Project started flowing into the Tempe Town Lake. On July 14, 1999, the Tempe Town Lake was officially declared full. On November 22, 2002, Arizona Game and Fish stocked Tempe Town Lake with about 5,000 rainbow trout. This was the first release of sport fish into Town Lake. In 2001, stockings had to be postponed due to excessively warm weather that led to high pH levels. On July 4, 2000, more than 125,000 visitors celebrated Independence Day at Tempe Town Lake. Fireworks were shot from the east Mill Avenue bridge over the lake.




Fast-forward to 2006, what better to do on a man-made lake in the middle of a desert metropolis than have a cardboard boat race? Tomorrow, the Tempe Town Lake, will host the Rotary River Rally. Admission is free, 9 AM to 3:00 PM, just east of Tempe Beach Park.