Barker Dam

Built by cowboys to water their cattle, Barker Dam began as a natural catch basin for rainfall and runoff and was expanded by the Barker & Shay Cattle Company in this natural basin. The company laid the lower stone dam in 1902, and Bill Keys, owner of the Desert Queen Ranch, later enlarged and improved it with the upper concrete layer. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, cattle ranching was an important business here, when average annual rainfall was about 10 inches and the grass ranges of Lost Horse, Queen, and Pleasant valleys were lush and abundant. Because reliable water from wells, tanks, and springs was critical, ranchers and miners competed fiercely for water rights. A pipeline once carried water from the dam to a cattle trough in the wash behind it, and at its maximum the reservoir encompassed about 20 acres. Cattle ranching here was short-lived, however, as rainfall decreased in the early part of the century, grasses declined, springs dried up, and cattle raising gradually moved farther west. Today Barker Dam forms a small ephemeral lake in the desert, attracting wildlife and migrating birds in an otherwise parched environment.

California · United States