Willard Bay

The bay was separated from the Great Salt Lake in 1964, and has since served as a source of irrigation water and recreation for the northern Wasatch Front metro area.

Willard Bay is a 9,900-acre (40 km2) freshwater reservoir located in eastern Box Elder County, Utah, north-west of the city of Ogden, on the north-eastern floodplains of the Great Salt Lake.

Fish in Willard Bay include black crappie, walleye, wiper, smallmouth bass, channel catfish, bluegill, and gizzard shad (which are unlawful to possess).

This project called for the creation of a reservoir to store surplus water from the Ogden and Weber rivers that could later be accessed for use on farmland.

The dike, which impounds 215,200 acre-feet (270 million cubic meters) of water, was completed in 1964 by the W.W. Clyde Company, and was named the Arthur V. Watkins Dam.