The concrete thin-arch dam was originally completed in 1915 by the United States Bureau of Reclamation at a height of 62 feet (19 m) and 404 feet (123 m) long at its crest.

The dam was reconstructed (with a new reinforcing gravity-dam element buttressing the original thin-arch structure) and refilled by popular demand.

[2] The dam impounds the North Fork of the Tieton River, part of the Bureau's larger Yakima Project.

The reservoir it creates, Clear Lake, has a water surface of 260 acres (110 ha) and a capacity of 5,300 acre-feet (6,500,000 m3).

Recreation includes boating and fishing, and the site is surrounded by the southern tip of the Wenatchee National Forest.