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Lucky Peak Dam
USACE Lucky Peak Dam Idaho.jpg
aerial view in June 1997
Lucky Peak Dam is located in Idaho
Lucky Peak Dam
Lucky Peak Dam is located in the United States
Lucky Peak Dam
Location in southwest Idaho
Country United States
Location Ada County, Idaho
Coordinates 43°31′42″N 116°3′11″W / 43.52833°N 116.05306°W / 43.52833; -116.05306
Purpose Flood control, irrigation
Construction began 1949 (1949)
Opening date 1955; 69 years ago (1955)
Construction cost $19 million (1955)
Owner(s) U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers
Dam and spillways
Type of dam Embankment dam
Impounds Boise River
Height 340 ft (104 m)
Length 2,340 ft (713 m)
Reservoir
Creates Lucky Peak Reservoir
Total capacity 307,000 acre-feet (379,000,000 m3)
Catchment area 2,680 square miles (6,940 km2)
Surface area 2,820 acres (11.4 km2)
Normal elevation 3,050 ft (930 m)
Power station
Commission date 1988 (1988)
Turbines 2 x 45 MW,
1 x 11 MW
Kaplan-type
Installed capacity 101 MW
Annual generation 321,790,000 KWh

Lucky Peak Dam is a rolled earth and gravel fill embankment dam in the western United States, located on the Boise River in Ada County, Idaho. It is directly downstream of Arrowrock Dam, a concrete arch dam completed in 1915. At the time of its construction in the early 1950s, Lucky Peak's primary purpose was flood control, with a secondary purpose of irrigation. The normal operating elevation of the full reservoir is 3,055 feet (931 m) above sea level, the empty reservoir's elevation (Boise River) is 2,824 feet (861 m).

Construction began in November 1949 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; many men were lost blasting the mountain. Most had no experience with dynamite. They brought in Clifford Riddle who was an expert in dynamite. Clifford had settled his wife and sons in the Boise Valley. Clifford carved the crutual, operational curve of what you now drive to reach the reservoir called Lucky Peak Lake. Most of the federal dams in southern Idaho, including the others on the Boise River, were built by the Bureau of Reclamation, not the Corps of Engineers. The Idaho Power Company, a private utility, built multiple hydroelectric dams on the Snake River.

Located along State Highway 21, ten miles (16 km) upstream from the city of Boise, it was built without hydroelectric power generation. Construction of the powerhouse began in 1984 and it became operational in 1988, generating electricity primarily for Seattle City Light.

The dam was named after a nearby mountain in the Boise Range, about four miles (6 km) north of the dam (43°36′18″N 116°03′43″W / 43.605°N 116.062°W / 43.605; -116.062). The summit elevation of Lucky Peak mountain (a.k.a. Shaw Mountain) is 5,904 feet (1,800 m).

The dam forms Lucky Peak Lake and is surrounded by Lucky Peak State Park.

The dam is also in close proximity to the Lucky Peak Dam Zeolite Occurrence.

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