Although the dam was to serve primarily for irrigation, power production began ceremoniously on June 23, 1926 with a press of a telegraph key by President Calvin Coolidge, starting the turbines at a 31 megawatt hydroelectric plant.

[7] The dam wall was constructed in vertical zones, which consisted of compacted, alternating layers of coarse and fine material ranging in thickness from 1.6 to 66 feet (0.49 to 20.12 m).

[8] The old Exchequer Dam was incorporated as an upstream toe to help support the rock-fill embankment, which was then armored with a layer of reinforced concrete.

[9] As the new reservoir filled, it inundated an additional 15 miles (24 km) of the Merced River canyon and buried sections of the historic Yosemite Valley Railroad and the mining town of Bagby under 50 feet (15 m) of water.

[10] New Exchequer was among the first high concrete–faced rock-fill dams in the world, and its untested design resulted in significant leakage, sometimes up to 100 cubic feet per second (2.8 m3/s).

[12] In February 2015, the reservoir reached its lowest level on record, at 63,489 acre-feet (0.078313 km3) or less than 7 percent of total capacity, due to three years of persistent drought.

High water releases are controlled by an ogee-type, gated overflow spillway located about 2 miles (3.2 km) north of the dam.