The Garhart Foundation

Mill Creek History · Station 1

The Dam at Lake Dell - Now the Garhart Reservoir

Built in the 1930s and designed by the Army Corps of Engineers, the dam was created to provide a place for raising trout. The peat moss carried down from Thomas Lake, in east Mill Creek, turned the trout brown.

Plans were drawn up for a hydroelectric generation system, but it was never implemented.

The resulting body of water, then known as Lake Dell, is now the Garhart Reservoir.

Looking north across the dam.
Looking south. A match was once used to plug a leak in this truck’s carburetor - the head was still intact, it ignited, and the truck burned to the ground.
Looking east.
General construction of the dam.
Penny Creek, before the dam was built.
Lake Dell - now the Garhart Reservoir.