Lower Otay Reservoir is an artificial lake in San Diego County, California

San Diego County, California

San Diego County is a large county located in the southwestern corner of the US state of California. Hence, San Diego County is also located in the southwestern corner of the 48 contiguous United States. Its county seat and largest city is San Diego. Its population was about 2,813,835 in the 2000...

, flanked by Otay County Open Space Preserve and Chula Vista

Chula Vista, California

Chula Vista is the second largest city in the San Diego metropolitan area, the seventh largest city in Southern California, the fourteenth largest city in the State of California, and the seventy seventh largest city in the U.S....

. The reservoir is formed by impounding the waters of the Otay River

Otay River

The Otay River is a river in southern San Diego County, California. The river begins at San Miguel Mountain, flows through the Upper- and Lower- Otay Reservoirs, and continues on between the southern part of the Chula Vista and the Otay Mesa West district of San Diego, and empties into San Diego Bay...

, behind Savage Dam

Savage Dam

Savage Dam is a dam across the Otay River in southern San Diego County, California. It is a concrete arch gravity structure high, and serves to store water from the San Diego Aqueduct's 3rd Pipeline for backup municipal uses in the San Diego metropolitan area. It lies just over east-southeast of...

, completed in 1918, and is the terminus for the Second San Diego Aqueduct. Owned by the City of San Diego.

History

Lower Otay Reservoir was originally created in 1897 after the construction of the Lower Otay Dam by The Southern California Mountain Water Company. The original dam was a rock fill type of 125 feet (38.1 m) high. That dam gave way in January 1916 following heavy rains which affected most of Southern California flooding the Otay Valley with a wall of water ranging from 100 to 20 ft (30.5 to 6.1 m) in height during the event, killing more than 14 people. The rains were blamed on Charles Hatfield

Charles Hatfield

Charles Mallory Hatfield was an American "rainmaker". He was born in Fort Scott, Kansas in 1875 or 1876. His family moved to southern California in the 1880s. As an adult, he became a salesman for the New Home Sewing Machine Company...

, who had been hired by the City of San Diego to assist in increasing rainfall to fill nearby Morena Reservoir. He was never charged with any crimes. Following this the present Arch-gravity dam

Arch-gravity dam

An arch-gravity dam, curved-gravity dam or arched dam is a dam with the characteristics of both an arch dam and a gravity dam. It is a dam that curves upstream in a narrowing curve that directs most of the water against the canyon rock walls, providing the force to compress the dam...

 was built.

An SB2C Helldiver

SB2C Helldiver

The Curtiss SB2C Helldiver was a carrier-based dive bomber aircraft produced for the United States Navy during World War II. It replaced the Douglas SBD Dauntless in US Navy service. Despite its size, the SB2C was much faster than the SBD it replaced...

plane was spotted in the lake in February 2009 by a bass fisherman. Divers examined the plane on July 23, 2009, to see if it can be salvaged for museum display. The plane was raised on August 20, 2010. On May 28, 1945, the Helldiver was on a practice bombing run from a nearby aircraft carrier when a stalled engine forced an emergency landing in the reservoir.

External links

• Lower Otay Reservoir - City of San Diego web site