page_title: Lake Havasu
section_title: Natural history
hierarchical_section_title: Lake Havasu / Natural history
caption_attribution_description: English: Lake Havasu, and the city named after it on the right. Lake Havasu is in the Colorado River. (view almost true-north) California is at left with Chemehuevi Wash &amp; Chemehuevi Valley; on right is the city &amp; north is the dark (volcanic?) Mohave Mountains of Arizona.
context_page_description: Lake Havasu is a large reservoir formed by Parker Dam on the Colorado River, on the border between San Bernardino County, California and La Paz County, Arizona. Lake Havasu City sits on the Arizona side of the lake with its Californian counterpart of Havasu Lake directly across the lake. The reservoir has an available capacity of 619,400 acre feet. The concrete arch dam was built by the United States Bureau of Reclamation between 1934 and 1938. The lake's primary purpose is to store water for pumping into two aqueducts. Prior to the dam construction, the area was home to the Mohave Indians. The lake was named after the Mojave word for blue. In the early 19th century, it was frequented by beaver trappers. Spaniards also began to mine the areas along the river.
context_section_description: The shorelines are in the ecotone (transition zone) of the higher Mojave Desert to the lower Sonoran Desert and its Californian Colorado Desert ecoregions.
  The Havasu National Wildlife Refuge is located at the upper end and upriver.  Lake Havasu State Park is along the eastern shore in Arizona. The Bill Williams River National Wildlife Refuge extends southeastward up the riparian zone of the Bill Williams River canyon from the southeastern end of the reservoir and dam.
caption: Lake Havasu with Lake Havasu City, Arizona on the east shore (right) and Havasu Lake, California on the western shore (left).
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