The Stanislaus River and environs experienced dramatic changes beginning with the
Gold Rush. The site of the reservoir is at the very heart of
Gold Country, and development began there with the arrival of the miners in the 1840s. Water was immediately diverted, the riverbeds scoured for gold, and the banks inhabited by miners and the businesses that served them. By 1900 the flowing water was used to create electricity. Some of it was diverted into canals for use in
San Joaquin Valley agriculture. The original
Melones Dam was completed in 1926, forming a smaller Melones Lake reservoir.
New Melones Project The New Melones Project was authorized in 1944 to create a much larger reservoir and to establish a new
hydroelectric plant. It would also be specifically designed to prevent floods. It was a controversial project. The dam's opponents argued that its presence would inundate the river valley, eliminate the natural
whitewater rapids, flood many of the massive unique limestone cave formations characteristic of the area, and destroy archaeological resources found along the river. The environmental organization
Friends of the River was formed to fight the dam. Initial archaeological surveys were made by the Smithsonian River Basin Surveys in 1948 (Fredrickson 1949). Further surveys were done by regional universities. The consensus after the surveys was that the dam would be built. Upon the dam's completion, the valley filled with water, covering the old mining town of Melones and the original
Melones Dam. The lake was constructed by the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and transferred to the
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation shortly after its completion in 1980. Cultural resources affected by the project were transferred to the
Department of the Interior with the
Heritage Conservation and Recreation Services (HCRS, a short-lived organization that was established during the Carter administration) responsible for the archaeological mitigation program. New Melones is a unit of the
Central Valley Project. The reservoir was used to conceal five murder victims by
Jurijus Kadamovas and Iouri Mikhel in late 2001 and early 2002. ==New Melones Visitor Center and Museum==