The reservoir is named for John Wesley Powell, a civil war veteran who explored the river via three wooden boats in 1869.

Glen Canyon Dam was born of a controversial damsite the Bureau selected in Echo Park, in what is now Dinosaur National Monument in Colorado.

A small but politically effective group of objectors, led by David Brower of the Sierra Club, succeeded in defeating the Bureau's bid, citing Echo Park's natural and scenic qualities as too valuable to submerge.

Glen Canyon Dam was built to solve the downstream delivery obligations of the Upper Basin states.

Lake Powell is an "aquatic bank" built to fulfill the terms of the "Compact Calls" of Lower Basin.

Construction on Glen Canyon Dam began with a demolition blast keyed by the push of a button by President Dwight D. Eisenhower at his desk in the Oval Office on October 1, 1956, which started clearing tunnels for water diversion.

Later that year, the bridge was completed, allowing trucks to deliver equipment and materials for the dam and also for the new town of Page, Arizona.

Upon completion of Glen Canyon Dam on September 13, 1963, the Colorado River began to back up, no longer being diverted through the tunnels.

[6][7][8] The all-time highest water level was reached on July 14, 1983, during one of the heaviest Colorado River floods in recorded history, in part influenced by a strong El Niño event.

Colorado River flows have been below average since 2000 as a result of the southwestern North American megadrought, leading to lower lake levels.

[11] The capacity of Lake Powell has decreased by 7% since 1963 facing an average annual loss of 33,270 acre-feet of storage, due to the inflow of sediments from Colorado and San Juan rivers.

The more recent (Jurassic Period) formations include Kayenta Sandstone, which produces the trademark blue-black "desert varnish" that streaks down many walls of the canyons.

This period also includes light yellow Entrada Sandstone, and the dark brown, almost purple Carmel Formation.

Above these layers lie the sandstone, conglomerate and shale of the Straight Cliffs Formation that underlies the Kaiparowits Plateau and San Rafael Swell to the north of the lake.

[13] During the protracted 21st-century drought, however, the lake has dropped so quickly on several occasions that the cut dried up during the summer tourist season, most recently in 2013.

Extra precautions must be taken with respect to boating safety, as the fractal nature of the lake's hydrologic surface area can allow vessels with limited charting equipment to become easily lost.

In January 2008,[17][18] Zebra mussels have been detected in several reservoirs along the Colorado River system such as Lakes Mead, Mojave, and Havasu.

By the early 2000s Arizona, California, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, Nevada and Utah have all confirmed the presence of larval zebra mussels in lakes and reservoirs.

The mussels are known to clog pipes including those in hydroelectric power systems, thus becoming a costly and time-consuming problem for water managers in the West.

In 2001 hot water boat decontamination sites were established at Wahweap, Bullfrog, and Halls Crossing marinas.

[citation needed] Lake Powell introduced a mandatory boat inspection for each watercraft entering the reservoir beginning in June 2009.

Effective June 29, 2009, every vessel entering Lake Powell must have a mussel certificate, although boat owners were allowed to self-certify.