Bishop Creek Dam
The dam on Bishop Creek was built by the Pacific Reclamation Company to provide water for the master-planned community Metropolis, about 7 miles away. The dam and associated diversion were completed on April 12, 1911 at a cost of $200,000. Reportedly, some 6.5 million broken bricks from the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake were used as infill. At first believed to be a success due to uncharacteristically wet years, the first glimpse of failure arrived in June 1912 with a group of farmers from Lovelock filed suit against Pacific Reclamation, which claimed the Bishop Dam impeded their water rights downstream. Ultimately, the lawsuit reduced the amount of water which could be impounded on Bishop Creek and reduced the irrigable land at Metropolis to only about 4000 acres - a dramatic drop from the anticipated 40,000. Subsequent drought and trouble with pests doomed the town, which was a ghost by the end of the 1940s.
Although Metropolis withered and died, the Bishop Creek Dam continued to impound water until 1984. Since then, the concrete structure has deteriorated significantly, and is unable to even hold water due to cracks and seepage. Much of the concrete face, including the outflow structure, succumbed to a 4.7 earthquake on August 31, 2021, making its future uncertain.