The dam is an earthfill structure with a spillway. Operating agencies Reclamation turned over the operation and maintenance of the Silt Project to the Silt Water Conservancy District in 1968. The district also operates the private Farmers Irrigation Company facilities as part of the project. Most early settlers in the area were miners and prospectors who turned to irrigated agriculture after being unsuccessful in mining attempts. When the railroad failed a short time later, the families remained in the vicinity and began farming.
Agriculture is still the region's basic industry.
Several thousand acres of rangeland and National Forest reserves surround the cultivated areas and are used for summer grazing. The Bureau of Reclamation began investigations of the Silt Project in 1936. A report on the Colorado River dated March 1946 briefly described a project plan similar to the preset plan. The plan was described in greater detail in a January 1951 report on the Silt Project, which served as a supplement to the 1950 report on the Colorado River Storage Project and participating projects. The 1950 report was amended in 1953 and was the basis for authorization of the Silt Project.