The Opening of Sutherland Dam Was a Long Time Coming

Sutherland Dam made history when it was dedicated on June 5, 1954. More than 300 dignitaries and spectators turned out for the ceremony and luncheon hosted by the San Diego Chamber of Commerce. The moment in history wasn't that the dam was having a grand opening; it was the fact that the dam was finally finished. Construction on the project had started 27 years earlier.

Lake Sutherland is located about 10 miles northeast of downtown Ramona and belongs to the city of San Diego. Dam construction began in 1927 and halted the following year. Lack of funds and a disagreement over water rights were the reasons for abandoning the project.

Escondido wanted to claim water rights because the natural course of the water would be flowing west and out to the ocean. It wasn't heading toward San Diego and the city's filtration plant at Lake Murray in La Mesa.

But it seems more logical that money was the bigger problem. Had there been enough in the coffers at that time, the flow of water out of Santa Ysabel Creek could have been directed in the right direction. 

With an increase in population and more manufacturing demands by 1952, the decision was made to resume the dam's construction. By then, the legal and technical rights to the water had been resolved. 

Ramona Municipal Water District has access to the water in the lake, but the city of San Diego gets first choice. In a sense, San Diego takes the water from the top of the lake while Ramona's water comes off the bottom. 

When the second phase of construction began in 1952, pipelines were added to the plans to direct the water flow through Ramona to San Vicente Reservoir in Lakeside and on to Lake Murray. The city of San Diego's water department operates San Vicente and Lake Murray. 

Voters approved a $6.5 million bond to meet the construction costs for the second phase. The cost of the dam was $3 million, the tunnel was $1.75 million, engineering and miscellaneous costs were $250,000, and right-of-way costs were $1.5 million. 

Contractors for the dam were the Daley Corporation of San Diego and Bent Construction Company of Alhambra. The tunnel was built by Shea Construction, while the engineering was handled by Engineering Constructors Inc. and Harry L. Foster. 

The dam was about one-fourth complete when it was abandoned in 1928. When construction started again in 1952, work picked up where it left off. Concrete had been poured for nine of the 17 arches and most of the wooden frames were still in position. 

The arches are called semi-ecological arches, curving between 18 buttresses, or abutments, which are the walls of the arches. Sutherland Dam is the last of the multiple-arched dams built in the county, according to reports published in local newspapers at that time and the 1953-54 issue of Southwest Builder and Contractor magazine. 

The arches rise 161 feet above the streambed and are 10 feet thick at the base and 40 inches at the top. A walkway across the top of the dam follows the contour of the arches. The dam measures 1,240 feet from side to side, including the spillway. 

The spillway is a lower section at the east end of the dam. It provides an outlet for the water when the level reaches 145 feet. The dam has spilled only a few times, in the 1970s and again in the 1990s. 

There are a few cracks in the dam, but they are considered safe, according to a former reservoir keeper at the dam. The cracks have only varied a couple thousandths of an inch over the years. 

An old scrapbook found several years ago at a yard sale in Ramona contained news clippings from when the dam opened for fishing in the summer of 1954. One news article stated: “The previously built buttresses were still covered with the old wooden frames. When the workers began removing these, thousands of bats flew out to the amazement of everyone.”

It is a well-known fact that the lake, dam and road were named for John P. Sutherland, who was in real estate and insurance as well as growing fruits and grains in the vicinity where the lake is now located. One reason for why Sutherland became the namesake was that he had taken part in the preliminary studies for the dam. 

But local author Darrell Beck has it another way in his book, On Memory's Back Trail. He attributes his findings to James Jasper, an early-day newspaper publisher in Ramona and Julian. 

“A civil engineer named Post who was surveying the dam site and who was drenched in a rainstorm, stopped at Sutherland's office to record some papers,” Beck wrote. “Sutherland built a fire and gave Post some dry clothes while Post was waiting. As a result, the grateful surveyor said he would never forget this as Sutherland refused to take any pay for helping him.

“Thus, when the map was filed for record, Post had the title read, ‘Survey of Sutherland Dam Site,’ as a tribute to Sutherland's kind deed.”

The history for Sutherland Dam was researched at the Pioneer Room at the Escondido Library, and in the book On Memory's Back Trail by Darrell Beck.