In 1895, Beardsley died, and his brother William who was now president of the Water and Land Company helped continue the project.

In 1896, due to a lack of funding caused by poor nationwide economic conditions, the project was halted.

[1][2] After nearly 30 years of struggling with funding, William Beardsley hired engineer Carl Pleasant to assist with the design.

Pleasant recommended hiring the engineer firm Peckham and James to draft plans for the storage dam at the Frogs Tank site.

In early 1926, Pleasant sold the needed bonds to the New York firm Brandon, Gordon and Waddell.

[1][2] Although the building of worker camps and site preparation had begun in 1925, the main construction began in 1926 with the diversion of the Agua Fria River.

[1] In 1973, construction on the Central Arizona Project (CAP) began while many of its facilities were still being planned and approved.

However, in 1977, US President Jimmy Carter recommended that Orme Dam and two other projects on the Gila River System be removed from the CAP plan because of their negative impacts and cost.

Orme's removal was hampered by controversy that led to the creation of the Central Arizona Water Control Study (CAWCS) in 1979 after Secretary of the Interior Cecil D. Andrus requested that the Bureau of Reclamation identify a replacement.

In April 1984, it was approved with the exception of the Cliff Dam, which needed further study and would eventually be removed from CAP.

A diversion tunnel was constructed along with another to divert water releases from the Old Waddell Dam into the Beardsley Canal.

[4] The reservoir created by the dam, Lake Pleasant, has a capacity of 1,108,600 acre-feet (1.3674×109 m3) at its maximum elevation above sea level: 1,725 feet (526 m).

[7] Water released into the 4.7 miles (7.6 km) long Waddell Canal first travels under the Agua Fria River via a 2,440 feet (740 m) long siphon before being returned to the surface canal where it continues south to meet the CAP aqueduct just west of Arizona State Route 303.

During the winter months, when energy rates are low, additional water in the aqueduct is pumped a maximum of 192 feet (59 m) up into the lake for storage.

[5] During the summer months, when energy rates are higher, water is released back down through the generators for hydroelectric power production.

Completed in 2005, the third phase of the study determined that the expanded reservoir has reduced nutrient concentrations due to added CAP water and that water level fluctuations have reduced fish cover, likely affecting food and spawning.

[10] Around the lake, Reclamation has taken steps to protect wildlife habitats for bald eagles and Gila topminnows.