Milner Dam

The dam carries the name of a Salt Lake City banker, Stanley B. Milner, who backed the rancher I. B. Perrine when eastern money from Frank Buhl and Peter Kimberly came in behind him. Buhl pulled the ceremonial wheel that closed the gates on March 1, 1905. In December 1988 federal dam-safety inspectors found a high risk the old structure would fail in an earthquake. The canal companies rebuilt it between 1990 and 1992 on a loan from Idaho Power, which put a 57.5-megawatt plant downstream, and the river below can still run dry.

What the plaque says

Milner Dam When completed in 1904, Milner Dam raised Snake River 38 feet to divert water into major north and south side canals. A gravity system unmatched in size in national reclamation development, this project irrigates 360,000 acres of land. Twin Falls, Jerome, and a half dozen other communities suddenly sprang up in a desert plain watered by 160 miles of main canals. Located on lava channels formed by two rock islands, Milner Dam's three segments (462, 404, and 280 feet in length) were built by four locally powered electric cranes that were an engineering marvel of that time. 208 Text prepared by the Idaho Historical Society Marker made & installed by Idaho Transportation Department

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Minidoka National Historic Site — 20 mi
  The prisoners built a board for the names of their sons in the Army. When the camp was given away as farms, the board was lost.

More markers nearby

• Starrh's Ferry — 4.1 mi
• Camp Rupert 1943-1946 — 7.0 mi
• Caldron Linn — 14 mi
• City of Rocks — 18 mi