The purposes of the Hungry Horse Project authorized by law are irrigation, flood control, navigation, streamflow regulation, hydroelectric generation, and other beneficial uses such as recreation.

The Guy F. Atkinson Company won the contract to divert the river during dam construction.

Two timber companies, Wixson and Crowe and J. H. Trisdale, cleared seven thousand acres (2,800 ha) to make way for the reservoir.

Engineers adopted air-entrained concrete to reduce the effect of freeze-thaw cycles and to make the material more stable and workable.

[2] At a ceremony on October 1, 1952, President Harry S. Truman threw a switch to start power generation.

[2] Nearby and downstream, an aluminum production plant was constructed in the mid-1950s, northeast of Columbia Falls.

[9] The Hungry Horse Reservoir is fed by a number of smaller creeks and streams, including: