‘Deadbeat’ Eklutna dam due for demolition, group says

An old dam on the Eklutna River has blocked salmon runs there for decades. Now, an Alaska Native tribe wants to tear the dam down and restore fish to the river.
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Photo: The Conservation Fund.
It stands in a canyon 400 feet deep, a mile or so off the Glenn Highway, but hidden from the view of passing motorists. The old Eklutna Dam was built in 1929, to divert Eklutna River water for Anchorage hydroelectric power. It operated for only thirty years, before Eklutna Lake water, the sour