The Potholes were the joint project of people and nature. Natural forces formed the sand dunes but humans created O'Sullivan Dam, and when the irrigation water was turned on in the 1940s, miles of dunes were flooded, resulting in the potholes. This recreation area is a land of stark contrasts -- dunes and marshes, birdsong and silence.
From the top of the dunes, Potholes Reservoir looks like a Hollywood hallucination designed to drive grizzled prospectors mad, but it's real and it's wet, a wetland project on 35,100 acres of public land owned by the Department of Wildlife and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
Copyright © 1997-2003
