Friends of Eagle Nest Lake & Cimarron Canyon State Parks

Check our Activities page for more upcoming events! And our Parks Use page includes regulations, maps, campgrounds, and more!!

Some quick facts about Eagle Nest Dam and Lake

Construction began the fall of 1916 and completed by spring of 1918.
Although the original plans specified 140 feet high, it is actually only 124 ft high. The dam has a 400 ft. arch length
The official completion date was June 30, 1918.
A 1-cubic yard cement mixer powered by a gasoline motor mixed the 22,500 and 23,000 cubic yards of cement contained in the Dam.
The cement mixer was manually loaded and unloaded.
The cement was dumped into place using wheel barrows.
The cement has no reinforcing steel.
Other than a stream powered crane, numerous workers from surrounding communities provided all the labor.
Highway 64, which runs through Cimarron Canyon, was re-routed in order to utilize the two natural granite side walls that encase the dam.
Water from mountain snowmelt is impounded in the 1,500 acre, five mile long Eagle Nest Lake.
Eagle Nest Lake opened in 1920 and is home to trophy fishing habitat for Rainbow Trout, Salmon, Northern Pike, and Perch.
In 2002 Eagle Nest Lake was purchased by the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, and in 2004 New Mexico State Parks Division acquired 851 acres now known as Eagle Nest Lake State Park.

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Our group is a private entity whose principal and authorized purpose is to complement, support, contribute to, forward the purpose of, and aid the function of Eagle Nest Lake and Cimarron Canyon State Parks and the New Mexico State Parks Division of the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department.

Visit our parks!

Eagle Nest Lake State Park Visitor Center
42 Marina Way
Eagle Nest, NM 87718
575-377-1594

Cimarron Canyon State Park Visitor Center
28869 Highway 64
Eagle Nest, NM 87718
575-377-6271

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