The earthen dam was completed in 1911 by the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs, with a height of 55 feet (17 m) and 304 feet (93 m) long at its crest.

[1] It impounds the Blackfoot River of Idaho for flood control and irrigation water storage primarily for the Fort Hall Indian Reservation.

Its construction came eight years before the 1919 formation of Caribou County.

[3] Blackfoot Dam impounds the river at the northwestern end of the reservoir; the China Hat Dam towards the southwest of the reservoir was constructed in 1923 to resolve seepage problems.

[4] Recreation includes fishing for rainbow and cutthroat trout,[5] as well as carp.