The 301,000 acre⋅ft (371,000,000 m) capacity reservoir was created by the construction of the Indian Valley Dam across the north fork of Cache Creek in 1975 (49 years ago) (1975). The 965 ft (294 m) long and 201 ft (61 m) high earth-fill dam was built for water storage, irrigation and flood control.
Although the reservoir is in Lake County, it was built by neighboring Yolo County, which owns all water rights to the 300,600 acre-feet (370,800,000 m) of water. The dam includes a hydroelectric plant. The cost of the dam and reservoir exceeded $9 million and were funded in part by two bond issues.
