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The US Reclamation Service took over this dam project from the State of CA for which planning began in 1919, with the publication of Robert Marshall's geological survey of the region. Marshall and others were concerned with the increasing salinity of the Sacramento River due to encroachment of water from the San Francisco Bay. To protect the region from salinization, he proposed building a dam to enable year-round control over the Sacramento River's water supply. The State of CA tried in the early 1930s to craft legislation that would fund the dam's $500,000-$1,000,000 price tag; legislators from Northern and Southern CA could not agree on funding proposals, discord that was exacerbated by the Depression's drain of capital. By the mid-1930s, the state was hit by a drought and experienced high unemployment. A large capital campaign like the construction of a dam served multiple purposes; it generated needed electricity, brought jobs to the out of work and irrigation water to the region's highly productive farmers. The US Reclamation Service was put in charge of what was at first called the "Kennett Dam," (for the small copper-mining community nearby), but was later renamed the "Shasta Dam." Francis Trenholm Crowe (1882-1946), who supervised construction at the mammoth Hoover Dam, was selected to lead the Shasta effort. At 602 feet, this dam would be one of the highest dams in the US when it was completed over two years early in 1945. Work accelerated on Shasta Dam due to war-time demands for electricity in armament plants in Central CA. Working with Crowe. a consortium of twelve building contractors calling itself "Pacific Constructors, Incorporated" completed the work.

The town of Kennett, CA, was originally spelled "Kennet," and was one of the most significant mining towns operating in Shasta County, CA, during the last quarter of the nineteenth century.

PCAD id: 16902