City Gets Grant for Padre Dam Restoration

Padre Dam, a national historic landmark long ignored by the City of San Diego and badly in need of restoration, will finally receive some attention as a result of a bill signed by the governor Tuesday.

The bill, authored by Assemblyman Larry Stirling (R-San Diego), grants $200,000 to the city to repair the crumbling structure, built about 170 years ago by Indian laborers and believed to be California’s first dam.

Erosion is causing the still-standing sections of the stone-and-adobe structure to rapidly settle on the San Diego River bank. The dam is a centerpiece of joint city-county plans for developing the 4,400-acre Mission Trails Regional Park near Santee and San Carlos. The dam is at the eastern end of Father Junipero Serra Trail in the park.

“The purpose of my bill,” Stirling said, “was simple: to make sure we don’t lose the treasure we have there.”

The federal government gave the site to San Diego in 1964 on the condition that it be maintained and used for recreational purposes, but the city “ignored” it, Stirling said.

Historians believe work on the dam began around 1803, after a severe turn-of-the-century drought. Indian converts to Catholicism helped build the dam, believed to have been completed about 1817, for the Franciscan monks who established Mission San Diego de Alcala. It was among the first water-control projects in California.

Stirling said the bill was an emergency measure to allow the city to make immediate repairs. The National Park Service had been threatening to take the dam site away from San Diego if nothing was done, and the bill provides money for urgent repairs until the city can allocate funds.

Stirling said the city will decide later “whether to restore it to its original grandeur or leave it in its picturesque state.”