It is in the San Gabriel Mountains, south of the Angeles National Forest, on the northern border of Sierra Madre.

At the lower face of the dam, water can be released out of a steel grille covered 4 feet (1.2 m) diameter outlet onto a spillway, and then into channelized Little Santa Anita Creek.

In the 1940s CCC—Civilian Conservation Corps workers built the concrete channel containing the creek, from the dam through adjacent Sierra Madre.

[2] The dam's debris basin, when unfilled with sediment, and a small reservoir, can have a storage capacity of 51 acre-feet (63,000 m3), and a normal surface area of 1 acre.

[3] Access to the dam is restricted by locked gates and chain link fencing across the public Sierra Madre Canyon neighborhood side.