# Monument Lake dam (1889-1892)

- URL: https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/monument-lake-dam-1889-1892/
- Also known as: the State Reservoir
- Kind: Springs and water works
- Status: Living today
- County: El Paso County, Colorado
- Point: 39.0886, -104.88 (from a cited description)

- Updated: 2026-10-17

## What we know

Begun in 1889, when Monument people raised $30,000 to buy the land from David McShane for a lake to store water for irrigation, fishing and swimming; the legislature matched it with $30,000 in 1891, and McShane built the dam with 75 men and 40 teams, finishing in 1892. The state deeded the lake to the town in 1942, which Koch credits to W. E. Higby as lieutenant governor (Koch, S-0197, p. 40). Charles Allis, later of Greenland, 'helped build the Monument reservoir' (Allis family notes, S-0199). At the potato bake of Oct. 5, 1892, visitors besieged Contractor McShane with questions 'regarding Monument's large lake, which will form one of the attractions for the bake of 1893' (Rocky Mountain News, Oct. 6, 1892, S-0229). Edwards prints the newspaper accounts: active work began on July 6, 1892, Contractor David McShane turning the first furrow, with 75 men and 40 teams to follow; frost later stopped work with the puddle dam finished (Rocky Mountain News, July 7 and Aug. 29, 1892, and later, S-0233, p. 108); he dates the reservoir to 1893 (p. 27). See the Hanks and Doyle icehouses for the ice harvest.

## Where it was

USGS GNIS feature 198958, Monument Lake Dam (S-0006).

Placed from a written description, such as a land section, a distance from a landmark or an old survey note.

## Sources

- S-0006: https://palmerdivideresearch.com/sources/#s-0006
- S-0016: https://palmerdivideresearch.com/sources/#s-0016
- S-0197: https://palmerdivideresearch.com/sources/#s-0197
- S-0199: https://palmerdivideresearch.com/sources/#s-0199
- S-0229: https://palmerdivideresearch.com/sources/#s-0229
- S-0233: https://palmerdivideresearch.com/sources/#s-0233

## Nearby

- [Hanks and Doyle icehouses, Monument Lake](https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/hanks-and-doyle-icehouses-monument-lake/): 0.2 mi northeast
- [Monument Potato Bake grounds (1890-1917)](https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/monument-potato-bake-grounds-1890-1917/): 0.3 mi northeast
- [Rio Grande cattle pens, Monument](https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/rio-grande-cattle-pens-monument/): 0.3 mi east
- [Limbach Park](https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/limbach-park/): 0.3 mi northeast
- [Park Hotel and post office](https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/park-hotel-and-post-office/): 0.4 mi northeast
- [Hotel Ellis (1895)](https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/hotel-ellis-1895/): 0.4 mi northeast

Source numbers (S-0000) refer to https://palmerdivideresearch.com/sources/. Compiled by Michael Christensen for Palmer Divide Research; CC BY 4.0.