Silver Creek Reservoir also known as Silverton Reservoir is a sixty-five-acre impoundment on Silver Creek

Silver Creek (Oregon)

Silver Creek is the name of several different streams in the U.S. state of Oregon, including:...

 located in the Cascade

Cascade Range

The Cascade Range is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, and the notable volcanoes known as the High Cascades...

 foothills 2.5 miles (4 km) southeast of the city of Silverton

Silverton, Oregon

Silverton is a city in Marion County, Oregon, United States, along the 45th parallel. The population was 7,414 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Salem Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:...

, Oregon

Oregon

Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 on Oregon Route 214. The reservoir

Reservoir

A reservoir , artificial lake or dam is used to store water.Reservoirs may be created in river valleys by the construction of a dam or may be built by excavation in the ground or by conventional construction techniques such as brickwork or cast concrete.The term reservoir may also be used to...

 serves the purpose of flood control on the creek.

The lake is popular in the spring and summer as a recreation area. Stocked with roughly 20,000 hatchery

Hatchery

A hatchery is a facility where eggs are hatched under artificial conditions, especially those of fish or poultry. It may be used for ex-situ conservation purposes, i.e. to breed rare or endangered species under controlled conditions; alternatively, it may be for economic reasons A hatchery is a...

 trout

Trout

Trout is the name for a number of species of freshwater and saltwater fish belonging to the Salmoninae subfamily of the family Salmonidae. Salmon belong to the same family as trout. Most salmon species spend almost all their lives in salt water...

 each spring and early summer, the lake also provides opportunities to catch bullhead catfish

Catfish

Catfishes are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Named for their prominent barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, catfish range in size and behavior from the heaviest and longest, the Mekong giant catfish from Southeast Asia and the second longest, the wels catfish of Eurasia, to detritivores...

. Swimming is also quite popular on warm summer days as well as recreational boating, though only electric motors are allowed.

Since the reservoir was created in 1960, there has been fear in Silverton that Silver Creek Dam might someday give way. Though structural engineers have declared the dam safe and deemed the conditions for a dam breach to be almost out of the realm of possibility, studies have found that a collapse of the dam would be catastrophic to the city below.