New Waddell Dam

The New Waddell Dam is an embankment dam on the Agua Fria River in Maricopa County, Arizona, 35 miles north-west of Phoenix. It forms Lake Pleasant, filled from the Agua Fria and from the Central Arizona Project aqueduct, and serves both the Central Arizona Project and the Maricopa Water District. It also affords flood protection, hydroelectric power production and recreation. Construction began in 1985 and ended in 1994, and the reservoir submerged the Old Waddell Dam, which had been completed in 1927 after decades of planning.

Where it is

New Waddell Dam is a landmark near Anthem, in Maricopa County. It is one of the landmarks in this database, and appears in the statewide ranking of Arizona attractions.

How this ranking was reached

No official visitor count is published for New Waddell Dam, so its score rests on public interest and tourism significance, and is capped below the level a measured attraction can reach. That is why the medium confidence above is not higher. The weighting is explained in full on the methodology page, and every axis is broken out under Facts and sources at the foot of this page.

Note on the data: No official visitor count is published for this attraction.

Sources

• Public interest: Wikimedia pageviews (en.wikipedia, human traffic), 2024
• Coordinates and designations: Wikidata(opens in a new tab)
• County: U.S. Census geography via FCC Area API, resolved from coordinates

Record last verified 2026-08-12.