Hope Mills Dam

Hope Mills Dam
Hope Mills Dam and drained lake, June 2010
Location of Hope Mills Dam in North Carolina
Location	Hope Mills, Cumberland County, North Carolina
Coordinates	34°58′20″N 78°56′42″W / 34.97222°N 78.94500°W / 34.97222; -78.94500
Status	Operational
Construction began	2007
Opening date	2008
Construction cost	$9.8 million
Owner(s)	Town of Hope Mills
Dam and spillways
Type of dam	Concrete gravity
Impounds	Little Rockfish Creek
Height	33 ft (10 m)[1]
Length	750 ft (230 m)
Spillway type	Chute, labyrinth
Spillway capacity	10,240 cu ft/s (290 m3/s)[1]
Reservoir
Creates	Hope Mills Lake
Total capacity	816 acre⋅ft (1,007,000 m3)[1]
Catchment area	94.4 sq mi (244 km2)
Surface area	88 acres (0.36 km2)

The Hope Mills Dam, also known as Hope Mills Dam #1, is a concrete gravity dam on Little Rockfish Creek in Hope Mills, North Carolina, USA, which created Hope Mills Lake. Four different dams were built on the site including the current one. The first dam, of rock-crib design, was built in 1839 to power local cotton mills. The second was an embankment dam built in 1924 for powering the mills and later to maintain the lake's water level. Both previous dams failed from flooding. Then in June 2010 a leak was discovered and the lake was drained. The current dam was completed in early 2018 and water to be impounded in January but rainwater filled the dam before water even needed to be impounded.