They are smaller than Castaic Dam and Lake, the other artificial water storage facility in the area, 7 miles (11 km) to the south.

It lies directly behind the mountain rock giving the dam and lake its name - Pyramid Cut - which before the Ridge Route Alternate (later signed as U.S. Route 99) was built through the area in the 1931 to 1933 time period, was just another ordinary mountain.

The highway construction of the Ridge Route Alternate caused this mountain to have part of its mass "shaved" off - reduced in size - and after the work to accommodate highway traffic was finished, the shape of the cut was found to resemble a pyramid, and hence the name.

Pyramid Dam holds 171,196 acre-feet (211,167,000 m3) of water, covering an area of 1,297 acres (525 ha).

The dam and lake were built by the state of California Department of Water Resources (DWR), who maintains them today.