The Mount Morris Dam is a concrete gravity dry dam on the Genesee River. It is located at the northern end of Letchworth State Park, south of Rochester, New York in the towns of Leicester and Mount Morris in Livingston County, New York. It is the largest dam of its type east of the Mississippi River and its purpose is to mitigate downstream flooding between Mount Morris and Lake Ontario.
History
The Mt. Morris Dam was built between 1948 and 1952 by the Buffalo District office of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). The project was authorized by the United States Congress in the Flood Control Act of 1944 at a cost of $25 million. The flood of 1865, which developed flows exceeding per minute, resulted in massive destructions with flows equating to half the flows of Niagara Falls. Severe floods occurred every seven years on average between 1865 and 1950. An estimated $210 million in damages was prevented by the dam during the storm.